Grex Poetry Conference

View Responses

Grex Poetry Item 272: borrowed smiles <rcl>
Entered by rlawson on Sun Aug 12 15:33:56 UTC 2001:

my confession must
begin with an apology;
i'm sorry--
 
the smiles that embrace me
from ear to ear
are not my own, they are
borrowed from the
faces of children who will
change their gaze from
sidewalk to visage
to wish another well
 
   maybe he took with him
   the memory of how to
   smile that brand of
   bright shiney smile when
   he went away
 
but no matter--
what I meant to say
is I'm sorry
but I can't smile upon
you the way that you
should be smiled at
I'm sorry that every time
your face goes to gladness
my eyes turn to a
fleeting childhood grin,
harder to grasp by the minute
 
I am sorry to have to walk around
in this responsible world
afforded with the view of
soulless haphazard little shits
flashing me some third-grade
  RIPOFF
that too closely resembles mine,
except
 
without the hope
of healing,
of friendship and trust,
of the milk and cookies
kind of joy
remembered in
your company

4 responses total.

#1 of 4 by arianna on Tue Aug 14 01:25:02 2001:

hmm... starts off good.  second stanza's great.  sorta falls away into rant,
though.

#2 of 4 by rlawson on Tue Aug 14 01:29:57 2001:

I was kind of going for rant, hoping that my ending would make it ok. :(

#3 of 4 by arianna on Tue Aug 14 01:34:19 2001:

DOn't take my word as gospel.  others might like it that way.  I think it
degrades.  (you know I wouldn't say that to anyone I don't like. (; )

#4 of 4 by orinoco on Tue Aug 14 17:50:02 2001:

Hm.  I'm prejudiced against rants at the moment.  I must say, there's some
good phrases in this, though.  "The smiles that embrace me / from ear to ear"
just rocks my world.

Response not possible - You must register and login before posting.