A Facade of Perfection
she hides behind a façade of perfection
each photo she uploads has a certain sheen
her profile portrays her laughing, smiling, living
but everything she shows you is not all that it seems
for though she has a following of one thousand
and on her pictures she enjoys likes galore
she’ll never admit how much time she has spent
applying the perfect presets so that she may be adored
because she knows the techniques, how to lure people in
they scroll through her pictures, double tap for more
so she adds shots daily but she can’t help wondering
“what am i really doing all of this for?”
in her pictures, she is dancing, grinning, living
but that is all that she allows her followers to see
after all, they cannot see past her long-sleeved sweater
where the remnants of recent cuts continue to bleed
for in real life, she is crying, barely surviving
the pain seeps into her innermost core
of what use are her followers, the ones who like her pictures
if they cannot hear her heart implore?
there will come a day when her suffering stops
but so will her feed of photos as well
her heartbeat will drop, her breath will quicken
and everyone she knew will come say farewell
her followers will say, “oh but she was so happy”
her passing will throw them all off-kilter
but if only they knew, if only they had asked
they would have known what her life was like with no filter