1. don't stay up all hours of the night disintegrating inside of your bed

the nighttime not only blackens the world outside your window

but it creeps into your bed

sliding in between the sheets, up your legs, up your chest

and snakes into your mouth

and down your esophagus into the pit of your being

there it lives

and there it spreads through your veins and nerves

and now you've just got this big black mess inside of yourself

great job

2. keep away from the things that remind you you aren't well

maybe it's your old journal

or maybe the t-shirt you wore that night

or maybe it's a song in the car

or even the tears that hide themselves in your mother's eyes

whatever you do just don't look

because then it will bring you back

to that time and place

when you knew you were bad

hide from it run from it stay away from it

you've already got a heaping nastiness in your head

triggering it to grow and expand

now that's just (more) insane

3. no matter what, pretend like you're happy

this is a key rule to not being that sad

you see a person who reminds you of what you used to be

smile

you get an image of the stained bed sheets, the flashing lights, the screaming

smile

smile smile smile

smile until your face is shaking from the pressure

smile until it wants to pry itself from your existence

smile until it's just stuck there, locked in its prison

because the more you pretend to be okay

and the more you allow yourself to take a break from the sadness

maybe then it'll just be habit to (pretend to) be happy

and that'd be the day you see you're really not that bad

oh that'd be the day

4. last but not least, understand that "you're not a sad story"

you've had quite the staggering number of downs compared to the ups

but you stop

and you look around

and realize that you're alive and you're breathing

and there's nothing that you can't get over

you're not a sad song

you're good and you're pure

and really it's just all inside of your head

just get outside of your head

or try to, at least