Pretty Things Don’t Cry

Pretty Things Don’t Cry is a reflective narrative poem about the things people learn to hide in order to be loved.

Told through the image of a quiet house, a daughter who learns when to smile, and a porch light left on long after everyone else has gone home, this piece explores loneliness, grief, tenderness, abandonment, and the ache of wanting to be seen without becoming too much.

It is for the ones who learned to swallow tears before they learned how to speak about them.

For the ones who became smaller with pain.

For the ones who kept the house beautiful while carrying heartbreak no one else could see.

For the ones who learned to recognize goodbye while someone was still standing in front of them.

Created from my home to yours, this poem is a place to sit with the parts of yourself that spent years hidden away.

The parts that loved deeply.

The parts that stayed soft.

The parts still standing quietly in the doorway, leaving the light on for something they still hope will find its way home.