pretend

He came to this land
Raped someone's girl, killed someone's boy
Now his grandson's grandson's
grandson watches football
Pretending to know grief and joy

She lets a stranger
carve her face
hoping jack-o-lanterns entice "the one"
She doesn't love herself
but she'll pretend to love him a ton

We plug in tune out
drink poke swallow smoke
internalize adrenalize
acquire hoard sedate pray
and pretend
pretend
pretend
pretend we're okay