SMILES FOR YOU

You asked me the other day,
“Sweetie, why don’t you smile more often?”
I respond with an obvious answer.
“Because I only smile when I’m happy,
And I’m not happy.”

And sometimes you accept that as your answer,
But today is different,
Today you feel like challenging me.
“Why don’t you smile for me?
You’re making me sad.”
Right, smile just for you.
Because my sadness makes you sad,
My depression makes you depressed.
And rather than figure out why I tick,
I should smile,
Just for you,
So you can feel fine.

But what about me?
I mean sorry to seem selfish,
But I’m still stuck in this lonely depression.
I still feel like shit regardless of my facial expression.
The emptiness in my heart continues to grow
No hope for recession
But I should smile,
Just for you,
So you can feel fine.

I wish a smile could cure how I feel.
I wish by the simple twitch of my mouth
I could make all my bad feelings go away.
And while I can feel happiness,
Understand happiness.
I can’t make it stay.
No matter how hard I try,
even a smile won’t make it stay.
But I should smile,
Just for you,
So you can feel fine.

I don’t smile when I am sad,
Because I know that it is fake.
A mask behind my true feelings.
And every smile I want to have,
I want it to be real.
I want to be happy.

So I will not smile,
Just for you,
So you can feel fine.
I will smile because I want to smile,
Because for that brief moment I am happy.
And that happiness is real.
And when people remember me,
what they will remember is that even though my life
could be dark and depressing,
When I smiled it was REAL!
And that my smile lit up a room with joy and happiness.
And you knew that everyone there was happy.

Don’t smile like you mean it.
Smile, because you mean it.
And smile…
Because you want too.
Because you feel fine.