Smile "Lines"

Grandma-Me series

SMILE “LINES”

Where is the rooster on my coffee cup?

He used to be red with touches of yellow and plumes of feathers painted alive by a famous artist.

His large bright eye watched me as I ate.

Sometimes my finger traced the feathers on the top of his head as my mind looked somewhere else.

He must have flown away then;

And he took my conditioner with him.

Where is the soft glimmering untangled hair I used to wash?

It would wave and rise like a halo around my shoulders.

Now it tangles like the words I cannot remember, that will be back when I least expect them,

Reminding me of yesterday’s song.

Where have my dancing shoes gone?

They twirled and skipped and ran like the wind;

They never stumbled on the steps of my dreams.

They are probably spinning through spider webs or hiding behind folds.

“Grow old gracefully,” you say

From under the plastic surgeon’s blade.

Instead I close my eyes and see

That daunting rooster laugh at me.

Wearing a halo of words on his head

All of thoughts I have not said.

  I laugh too as I pick them all up

And put them back in my coffee cup