Here's To You

i.

To the girls with the burnt coal in the space between their rib cages, where their hearts should be;;

These smiles are plaster, fixated with super glue and rubber bands.
These laughs are sugar-lies, breathed through candy lips, pulled back into winces that people have come to know as 'real'.
These scars are curved through bodies, as needless as intricate paintings, serving as reminders of what was,
What could have been,
And what never should have been.

These 'good times' are the best works of the best liars, made for the best fools.

We should have known better.

ii.

To the boys with the smiles that steal away rationality;;

This is the reality that we have forgotten, where no one can just float away on clouds of joy.
This is the home that we had left, with tear-soaked pillows and blood-splattered walls.
These are the things we've given up in hopes of a place where pain wouldn't follow us,
Where disgust wouldn't mar us,
Where hate wouldn't burn us.

We were WRONG.

iii.

To the ones with the souls that look like ribbons;;

This is the past that we have given up in hopes of something better.
These are the scars that remind us that frailness is overrated, but we have another chance to prove ourselves.
These are the memories that we never will forget, be they good,
Be they bad,
Be they the hate in between.

When the cardboard settings fell over, at least we saw the boundless places to go behind them.

iv.

To the someones behind the glasses of bitter sweet wisdom;;

Here's to the times we have spent in our pain, watching good turn bad too fast to stop it.
Here's to the things that we have learned, and here's to learning how to learn from them.
These are the times that we have been used,
We have been neglected,
And we have been abused.

Raise your glasses--
Here's to hope.