Poetry of Issue #7        Page 5

Let A Smile Be

I took my old smile
out of a drawer,
pasted it back
where it used to be,
and went downstairs
and out the door,
into the world
where smiles mattered.

The bluff worked.
It usually does,
but wears you down.
The smile must
be put away
to give the face
a chance to breathe
in the air
of other things,
and be more like
what nature and life
has shaped it to be.