Irredeemable Superficiality
Hits like a ton of bricks
Or a sledgehammer slamming
Down your ribs like
They're a condemned building
The pillars that were thought
To support a person
Turn out to be illusory pedestals
That you placed under them
Meaningless and empty as fairy lights
When the shallows are mistaken
So easily for ocean depths
Is that a personal failing?
Or an indication of humanity's truth?
In the end, aren't they the same?
When life, in its cruelty, gives you
Lemons such as these
Sour, bitter as gall,
There is never a sprinkling of sugar
To ease the puckering pain
This is life's bitterness
People are forever false
Hiding behind facades
Until their true faces emerge
Like the grotesque contortions
Of an aborted butterfly