she tore off

a page from her notebook

and wrote down

all the things that made her smile

there were only a few

the page looked almost as good

as new

she tore off 

a page from her notebook

and wrote down

all the things 

that made her frown

all the things

that made her hurt

all the things

that made her get worse

she looked down at the lines

on the list

then she glanced, slowly

at her wrist

there wasn't much difference

she wrote down all of the things

that made her frown

her notebook had less four pages

now

n.c