your hair quickly faded to gray,
lines deepened around your eyes,
a hollow chuckle & brittle grimace
replaced a genuine laugh & smile
because you have spent decades
rewriting history to align with
your masochistic moral code.
in the exhaustedly edited version,
you sacrificed your health,
happiness, & sanity for your family
to prosper, an ocean away from
the place you called home.
in reality, you were trying
to outrun ghosts from another life
with every dollar made,
every promotion secured,
& every car bought.
sometimes, Samantha writes 