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The Teenager's Smile
Paper-white teeth, milky stones of bliss, thirty-two ivory rocks,
Perfectly molded by sharp metal wires, silver and blood tipped.
Pearls as firm as diamonds, jewels of luster, of a baby’s chaste spirit.
Pure and seducing, sin-bringing and stiff, strained and unnatural:
A smile.
Enslaved by expectations. Controlled by cruel commands.
Status, the clean surface; Education, the grimy brown rag.
Pressure, ever-present; I’m proud of you’s far too prized.
Failure, a revolt; Grades, glorious gold-gleamed garbs.
Still, a smile.
A piece of the puzzle, a part, crooked and unshaped.
Hallways bursting with jeers. Dreams echoing with cheers.
A witness, an apprentice, a sidekick. Never the center.
Heart torn like a cloth, lungs burned by pain, eyes ripped by approval.
Still, a smile.
Yearning for someone, a fake or a friend—anyone to listen.
The walls closing in. The shouts getting louder. The door, howling.
A trap of love, a den of vultures, a camp of deceit, a hole of wiles.
Strong. Independent. Brave. Wretched. Abandoned. Alone.
Still, a smile.
Venture beyond the perfect. Unsheathe the rancid gums.
Rows and rows of grime, of cavities, of sludge, of ache, of waste.
Hollow craters stuffed with nothing, blackness rotting at the ends.
Muck and mire and filth and sting and hurt and lies…graceful lies.
A smile.
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I wrote this piece with the intent of capturing the teenage spirit. The stories we read often depict adulthood as the hero and teenage personalities as a phase. The tribulations that the teenager faces each day are frequently ignored. I designed this poem to promote self-reflection in the teenager, to recognize one's daily struggles. My goal is for the reader to relate to at least one of the three topics represented: familial pressure, the stresses of school, and mental health battles. We are constrained in societal bounds and, through it all, supposed to smile.