They are the only ones who support me. I am the only one who heals them. Two broken smiles with crooked teeth and quivering lips like mine. Two who do not want to be here yet stay. Two soiled lives that must go on. In my mind, I see them, but I close my heart and ignore their suffering.

Their story continues. They take steps where others are too afraid to stand. They claw through the ground and rip open the sky, surrounded by the brilliant stars that others choose to never see. This is how they survive.

Let one forget her reason for surviving, they’d all drown in the tears and collapse from the weight of their burdens, with no one to carry them home. Survive, survive, survive they whisper when I wake. They heal.

When I believe that the hurt is too much, when the world around me goes black and silence reigns, then it is smiles anchor me. When there is nowhere left to hide. Two who live even when there is nothing left to give. Two who listen and do not forget to listen. Two whose only reason is to break and to be broken.