What Makes Them So Happy?

a simple free-verse poem, wondering

What do you think makes them so happy?

That they don’t feel the itch of the stitches in their tear-ducts compelling torn nails to tear them through, by each day’s nearing end?

That you would never know they’ve revisited crime scenes and splashed red footprints onto waving shore’s floor,

stepping the face on the milk carton down, hidden again, for seven years more?

~Written by Chloe P. Hawes

I wrote this poem perhaps a year ago. And it’s not much — it’s not a piece riddled with wordplay and grand metaphors, open to a million different interpretations. A relatively short poem, I was oddly proud of the product after I first wrote it, as the day neared its end. Most importantly, I think this little poem might specially resonate with other people, other writers— most especially, potentially, with other poets. Knowing you aren’t really alone is, in my opinion, an ideation profoundly impactful and rarely claimed. That you are seen, and that it’s okay to feel — whatever the emotion — is a message I’d like to extend with this piece, however despondent its portrayal (for I was feeling quite despondent and alone at the time it was written).

The publication GiaB (a.k.a. Genius in a Bottle) comprises a fantastic and beautiful community, and I missed everyone! So, I endeavored to both clean up and dress up a thoughtful piece I’d actually have the time to edit and submit, and soon, for hopeful publication. Thank you, Genius in a Bottle!