Author Information
Pressure
Everyday she goes to work
She spreads a fake smile, like the sun shimmering through the clouds
Nobody likes a sad worker, forced to appear happy every day
Customers are terrible, they don’t really care
Guys flirt, see a beautiful face and thin figure
They don’t see the skeletons in her closet or the problems that she faces
“A hammer to the knee caps.”
Obscure phrase to some, reality to her.
She struggles to fight for respect, a member in Leonidas’s army
Against all that would enjoy watching her fall.
The mother-in-law, sees flaws everywhere except herself
The Grandmother, spies with a cloudy lens.
The husband, confused and over demanding with everyone but himself.
She fights on until the last second of daylight.
Then suffers in silence while she tries to sleep in agonizing pain.
No breaks, no time off. The pain haunts her with a ticking hour glass.
In everyone else’s eyes, she washes the floor with a muddy rag
In her eyes, she replaces the tiles with delicate crystals.
Mistakes show up like hay, whereas perfection is the needle
The husband attempts to juggle in the circus of life.
School, son, family, all crumble in mid air
You could pack a 12 car train with his mistakes
He paints poorly drawn Graffiti to try and make it better.
Instead he decides to send the train off a cliff in a fiery explosion.
Buy a new one, washed, fresh white paint glimmering in the light.
No passengers, not yet.
As he preps the train filled with the coal needed to send it on its way towards his goal
He notices the barren wasteland of his relationship.
Passes the farm lands of rotten crops, the town covered in broken streets.
A mayor in his relationship, fallen asleep at the wheel.
He wonders as his train approaches the station, skeletons hiding in houses
Is it too late to fix? Should the town be blown up and another founded?
The most important resident has collapsed in the center
Beaten and broken, a long battle fought, she doesn’t see a victory.
No tears left to shed, new enemies arisen.
A demon sulks near the mayor’s house. A book gripped in his bulging claws,
A sinister sneer across his face.
He’s almost ready to attack the world with his full power. More books behind him
A bandit on the edge of town offers refuge, his intentions unknown
A stranger in the mist.
The mayor, a hardhat on his head and Thor’s hammer in his hand
He promises a bright future, mistakes learned.
It will take a while he thinks. But if allowed
He promises to make a glorious city of his relationship
Atonement for his recklessness.
