Anything But Happy Poem by Angela Bontle Ditumiso

She has a humorous laugh
Ever smiling
But it's all postiche
She emits fake laughs
Broken smiles
Sealed emotions colorless like ether
Cooked up reactions
Her actions are executed with much caution

She's a seemingly spirited soul
See her laughing from afar
See the way she carries herself
The way she talks
The things she talks about
She put on a thick evasive illusive layer
Her exuberant behavior exhilarates everyone around her

But at night
In everyone's absence
The mask withers
Etiolated by all the pretense
She lets her walls tumble down
Knowing there's none to witness
Just how weak and broken she actually is
She's anything but happy