“Smile!” they chirp, plastic grins on plastic faces

Cheery demands to friends, colleagues, complete strangers

Cheesy humour, blasé assumptions

“It’s not that bad! It might not happen!

Smile! Come on, smile!”

Smile? What for?

What makes you think your greeting card jolly will help 

What goes through your head? Do you really believe

Your perky demands will solve the world’s ills?

It’s not that bad? It might not happen?

How do you know it hasn’t happened already

Disaster changes life in a moment

Why does it never occur to you that you don’t know what’s going on?

What are you hiding from

For you to be so desperate

And demand smiles from the world

To mask your own pain