poems

There is no place for sadness
Not in family's arms
Not on street corners
No public tears allowed
Only crazy people cry in public
Pitiable people
The kind who need someone else
To contain their sadness for them
Proper people bring it home
Choke it down
Wear a flat line along their mouths
The preferred social etiquette is laughter
Laugh that your lover is dead
Smile you are alone
Laugh at your loneliness, it will go away
Laugh while digging the grave
Keep living, keep living,
this is the only way you know how
it's okay
Laugh at your loneliness,
it will fill up the spaces
it will block out the unnatural quiet of her absence
stop thinking of her
think of her more
on the walk home
the light on the leaves
changes and moves and whispers
where are you? where are you?
why can you not come back?

Saying a sad person needs a smile
Is like saying a lesbian needs a man
We do not want you
We do not want a diagnosis or to be fixed
We want to be able to say we are sad or we are in love
And how they made us very, very happy.