Paper-white teeth, milky stones of bliss, thirty-two ivory rocks,
Perfectly molded by sharp metal wires, silver and blood tipped.
Pearls as firm as diamonds, jewels of luster, of a baby’s chaste spirit.
Pure and seducing, sin-bringing and stiff, strained and unnatural:
A smile.
 
Enslaved by expectations. Controlled by cruel commands.
Status, the clean surface; Education, the grimy brown rag.
Pressure, ever-present; I’m proud of you’s far too prized.
Failure, a revolt; Grades, glorious gold-gleamed garbs.
Still, a smile.
 
A piece of the puzzle, a part, crooked and unshaped.
Hallways bursting with jeers. Dreams echoing with cheers.
A witness, an apprentice, a sidekick. Never the center.
Heart torn like a cloth, lungs burned by pain, eyes ripped by approval.
Still, a smile.
 
Yearning for someone, a fake or a friend—anyone to listen.
The walls closing in. The shouts getting louder. The door, howling.
A trap of love, a den of vultures, a camp of deceit, a hole of wiles.
Strong. Independent. Brave. Wretched. Abandoned. Alone.
Still, a smile.
 
Venture beyond the perfect. Unsheathe the rancid gums.
Rows and rows of grime, of cavities, of sludge, of ache, of waste.
Hollow craters stuffed with nothing, blackness rotting at the ends.
Muck and mire and filth and sting and hurt and lies…graceful lies.
A smile.