Keeping Up Appearances

They painted an aesthetic portrait of contentment and prosperity for the outside world. A popular, well-to-do man and wife festooned and held up to a pedestal as an ideal married couple. They were coined a "match made in heaven" by their sizeable circle of friends. Often waving at neighbors behind a picket fence, in front of their gorgeous, newly built cape cod; they live what seems like a fairytale. Ah, the good life! The American dream! All seems happy and hunky-dory between them to casual observers, but it's all an illusion. Their bright smiles, a mask to conceal an awful truth, a beautifully constructed facade. Carefully hidden beneath the veneer of normalcy, two broken people torn asunder by greed and acrimony. There's no love or trust there. A flawed union bedeviled by feelings of insecurity, squabbles over money, crippling debt, to name a few. The state of their affairs couldn't be more imperfect. They live in a house of cards with cracked walls and a shaky foundation. Eventually, their house, their ersatz world, will come crumbling down. Writing Prompt- Flawed - Poetry Contest Sponsored by Constance La France Words used: illusion, mask, facade, broken, torn, flawed, imperfect, cracked Date written: 06/16/2021