Winking Smiles

I always forget now
that they can't see the smile
whenever they wave
and my lips turn up in response

I've never been one
to communicate with my voice
joy is hard to put into words
without sounding too cheesy

I can never say the right things anyway
and when all the wrong things spill out
I wince at myself, grinning at my ineptness
twinkling eyes winking unknowingly

Oh, it's made for some awkward chuckling
when my left eye shuts of its own accord
and my thoughts run through circle mazes
why on Earth are they winking at me?

So when I see these strangers
as I guard the bikes outside the market
my smile turned solid blue
despite the scattered reminders, I forget

The masks fade away
as we wink at one another
not exchanging words, or even gestures
but an inside secret neither of us know

amaryllis

CA

YWP Alumni

More by amaryllis

  • Forgotten altars

    You blink and look and stare
    and stare

    As if trying to find the snag in the dream
    the catch in the sweater
    the cards hidden up someone's sleeves

    The meaning of this miracle that tapped you on the elbow
  • You, Tree

    As I sit on this stump and read
    from these pages of your cousin's pulped flesh,
    I burst with the excitement of next year seeing you draped in color,

    You. master of graceful loss.

    You, vessels of wasted breaths,
  • spiraling

    Spiraling odes of love and loss,
    lost pages strewn on the desk and the floor and the eyes and the sky and my limbs,
    each one with a piece of myself I do not want to see anymore.

    what have I created?