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What are you waiting for?
The Last Smile
I would die happy if...
Many thoughts rush to be first
in line to finish that sentence.
Like kids clamoring around
the ice cream truck, or racing
to the next amusement park ride.
Hell bent on just getting there
and damning the consequences.
Sound familiar?
How many sweet visions do you miss
by keeping your eye on the prize?
First place ribbons and trophies gather dust
as do your memories of what made
those victories worthwhile.
When was your last smile?
No, not that one.
Just being polite doesn't count.
The smile I'm talking about is not just
lips open wide chock full of teeth.
The smile that sends your blood rushing
like river rapids toward the edge of a waterfall
where sensations are too numerous to name.
The one where everything stands still
just to enjoy the deluge of happiness.
Climbing my favorite tree to find my special spot;
Walking into any library or bookstore;
Every time I step onto a plane
heading anywhere, everywhere;
Catching glimpses of horses;
My mother brushing my hair, or the time
she painstakingly sliced an apple into paper thin pieces,
just so her 7 year old in the hospital could get it past her lips.
And then there is dance, dance that makes me come alive
whether it is on stage, on the dance floor, or in my bedroom.
Most recently that smile visited me on vacation.
Not going to an exotic locale or even taken with family or friends.
No, I was alone on my journey when I found the last smile.
It was then I knew I would have many more.
