Paper angels,
With smiles painted on
Do you see what’s happening
All around you, in the wee hours of dawn?
It’s only once a year
You’ll see the light of day
And this time it’s tainted red
Red with blood, red with rage
It’s Christmas, year 2003
The new baby is almost two
She toddles around on unsure legs
And everyone around her smiles and laughs
I am a girl of seven,
As jealous as I could be
For although it’s not true
It seems like mom and dad have forgotten me
I open up my presents,
Each one is wonderful and grand
Suddenly it’s three years later
And another baby has joined the caravan
They circle around her,
Focusing on the little one
When her presents aren’t what she wants
You’ll hear it from the middle one
But that big one over there,
Now about ten years old
She just sits and smiles
Watches it all unfold
Paper angles, now she’s turned twelve
She feels lost and alone
She turns to a knife for comfort
Can you see with painted eyes
what others don’t if they are shown?
Now comes new years eve
A family tradition to uphold
A night of cards and laughing
Her plan will soon unfold,
As she lays down the winning hand,
A smile spreads across her face
But still, dear paper angles
She will continue to lose the race
It’s a fight that she’s ashamed of
One she’ll try to hide
But when she digs that blade into her skin
She wants go give in and die
Memories of friends and happier times
That’s what keep her alive today
A sliver of hope in a sea of despair.
But when she looks around her
Her only thought is ‘does anybody care’
School is coming to an end
Soon the class will split
Two halves going their separate ways
Now she finds the courage to end it
Dig the knife in deeper now
Farther than you have ever gone
You’re playing a deadly game of chess
And you’ve made her the sacrificial pawn
Did you notice her seat
Empty every day?
No longer there at lunch
She cant come out to play
She was only thirteen
Still quite to young to die
So why did you hand her the knife
Tell her to dig it in until she’d cry
You saw the pain right from the start
But you looked on from the side
Where were you to save her
On the night that she died?
Does anyone else miss her?
I think probably not
But the paper angles saw on Christmas day
She wasn’t sitting in her usual spot.
So for those of you
Who never cared,
Who taunted her and beat her down,
Or who saw what was going on and just stared
You drove her to the edge.
I can’t say who pushed her to die
But now, on Christmas day,
The paper angles will surely cry
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