SMILES


there are smiles of earlier days and younger lives
smiles void of pain and ignorant of loss
there are smiles that need not long for someone's embrace
smiles that do not bear a remnant of what had been
and know that it will never be again
there are smiles that have known completeness
smiles unresigned to the natural order of life
there are smiles, pure and untouched
of younger lives, of what had been
of those we loved, of what we keep

there are smiles in old photographs...
all that's left
all that's left...