Smile

When you smile

The sun comes out

My entire world turns on its axis

To face the light

And there is then an end to the dark night

Of closed faces, furrowed brows and flared nostrils

Anger was what I so often knew

Surrounding me in those rooms

I shared with family

And there was only a tiny hiding place

I created within the embrace of aloneness then

So that now when a smile

Lifts the furrowed brow

What a gift it is

To see the storms of past have passed

And the mask that covered over every grief

Is now released

As I finally stand

Naked bathed in sun