Disheveled with Purpose

Turn this way. Look up. Smile. Smile. Hold it. There.
Picure perfect. Camera flashing.
Trying to achieve perfection. Trying to make ourselves be seen as we wish we were.
Photo after photo.
There.
You'll see it.
The same distinctive smile that never changes.

That smile remains the same but doesn't tell her story.
She's a tangled mess. Her brain is filled of worries, ideas, and never ending thoughts of the future and the past.
Thoughts hidden behind honey brown eyes.

Photos. Photos only capture that smile, those eyes.

A picture.
She's smiling, shoulder to shoulder with her friends and the ocean behind them.
That is all the picture captured. That is all the picture tells.
Pearly whites flashing in a grin set to kill surrounded by wind tousled hair
No trash bags and signs
No cans, band aids, or dirty socks.

Pull back the camera from the smiling faces.
Capture the whole scene.

You'll see
Bags full of soiled diapers, food containers, and cigarette buds
Only rocks and sea shells left on mother nature's floor

You'll see
A girl on the verge of adulthood
Her toes tucked in the sand relishing in its warm and grainy texture
The way sand should feel

Signs at her feet scream
SAVE THE PLANET!
ONE STEP AT A TIME!
EARTH IS OUR HOME!

Her feet ache from trudging through all the waste left behind
But she took each step with purpose.
She's leaving her foot prints behind.
She's causing a ripple like a pebble skidding across a lake so, that others can create ripples of their own.
A Domino Effect for ages to come.

But none of this is seen in photos focused on smiles and nothing else.