When I first came to town,

in an Autumn’s yell,
a girl threw a smile

down my brown well,

& after it —in a high-dive,

to save it I fell
for when times get vile.
She dropped her smile,

strung it across the side walk,

caught my feet, entangled… Oh,gal!
I kept it, like a piece of chalk
to cut out, of the darker moments,

white outlines of a long lost face.

I first came to town with the heavens
on the skin and past haunts
in the heart, but that gal broke

my windows with a smile,

then another! & the shatters awoke
the daily passersby —That vandal!
Smile unfolded, spread wide

under the Sun… Smearing the wall

around those now orphan frames. Dyed,
my eyes! They burn, still, in the iridescent
flavors from a smile’s deep rapturing vine…

I first came to town, in an Autumn’s yell

and in that wishing-well
of mine

a gal threw her smile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Photo: CHATTY OWL ~http://chattyowl.com/