So…How Are You?!

“How are you?” they ask, as the world goes by,
A question so light, yet I choke on my reply.
“I’m okay,” the words like ash on my tongue,
A lie so stark, it feels like lungs unsung.

Inside, a sea of broken glass,
My heart pierced with each moment that does pass.
My daughter once my vibrant light,
Now a memory fading into eternal night.

The smiles I wear so brittle and thin,
Mask the seismic void that quakes within.
Each nod, each grin, a painstaking act,
A facade while inside my soul is cracked.

What I long to say, if courage didn’t wane,
Is “Help me,” through this suffocating pain.
This heart-throb, relentless and deep,
Steals the night’s rest the peace of my sleep.

Would they grasp the weight of this dark fight?
Or recoil from the depths of endless night?
For beneath the surface of my “I’m fine,”
Is a plea for a hand, your fingers entwined.

So ask again, and perhaps I'll dare,
To reveal the raw feelings before gasping for air.
Until then I walk this bumpy road,
Silently begging for solace before I explode!