Tag: smile

Crooked Smile – Flash Fiction

Crooked Smile

She had known pain.  Living with her like a constant companion.  Sometimes nudging, often poking.  Always reminding her of its presence.

The hurt ever-present. Over time festering in her heart, she would lance it like a boil.  Easing out the poison stopping it traveling to her very soul.  Concentrating on this familiar task helped her through another day.

The pain reminded her she was alive. Without it, dead.  To the observer, she was a hamster on a wheel continuously moving, going nowhere, caught in a vicious cycle.  That is how I remembered her.

Now returning to that place I see her vacant look gone.  Replaced with shining eyes I’d never noticed before. Knowing instinctively what happened to the pain she carried.  She’d had it sliced away, leaving a scar, and she wore it proudly on her face in the form of a crooked smile.

Copyright © 2022 Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing
All Rights Reserved

Prosery Monday at D'Verse is hosted tonight by Sarah from SarahSouthwest.  She
has given us a line from a poem by Michael Donaghy.
"She’d had it sliced away, leaving a scar"
We are to use it in exact order in our piece of fiction of exactly 144 words.

Smile

Smile

Waking to his smile
A cherished gift
The frown no longer there
lifting her challenged spirits
Giving hope the malaise
has gone forever
Whatever ailed his heart
and hardened it with ice
Had robbed his face
of its charm
The twisted agony
of pronounced pain
consuming his
body and mind
Filling it with anger
and despair
Leaving a legacy
of suffering
Shutting out the one
who loved him most
and lived his trauma
But now, just for a while
She takes that smile
and forgets all else
A contagious reaction
of joy and hope
that will carry her
on a cloud
 
until it doesn’t

 
Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing ©

Mish is hosting D'Verse Poets Open Link Night

Word Prompts
Challenge - Word of the Day
Pronounced - RDP
Legacy - FOWC

Image by ambroo from Pixabay 

Reunion

Reunion

Like snowflakes falling
Silently in the night
I am unaware of the beauty
About to unfold in my sight

You stand in front of me
After a lifetime of years
Memories roaring back
Bringing with them tears

Separated as teenagers
Daddy with a shotgun
A baby on the way
Our parents come undone

You travel east
And I am sent west
Never meant to be
We were told it was for the best

You served our country
Our baby was adopted
Turning away from my family
It was never what I wanted

I left them all in the past
My spirit had been broken
Living a better life alone
Another word was never spoken

Here you are now
A ghost from before
A buried secret
We could never ignore

Your smile the same
It’s as if no time had passed
The lonely years forgotten
We are together at last

Christine Bolton – Poetry for Healing ©

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