Friends admire
our digitized happiness,
unaware of what led
to images they praise on social media.
Can you connect dots
that aren't there,
pixels
that aren't there?
Between photographs we post online,
we are
not unhappy,
not ugly,
not lonely,
not unstable.
Instead,
between the photographs,
we are
unhappy sometimes,
ugly sometimes,
lonely sometimes,
unstable sometimes.
We take snapshots when we feel content
because that is what we yearn to remember,
though often what remains uncaptured
in our reductive scrapbooking
is what got us
to those moments of contentment.
The hurt between the hashtags and
the uncertainty between the uploads.
The self-denial.
The imposter syndrome.
The are-we-good-enoughs,
and are we?
We are.
But most importantly,
you are.