Smile Please

- Annie George 

I forget
The last time
I laughed out loud,
So loud-
My lungs could
Its level best.

How sad
And so soon, 
Who knew?
I’d be losing
All those laugh lines
On my face.

I was told 
I was born
With a smiling face.
Who said?
My ma was lucky
To have me.
Times were when
Smiles came effortlessly
And weren’t they infectious?
As sparklers in the darkness;
From a cartoon quip
Or a natural slip

All along
I was checked 
By my near ones-
Except my dad
(he always joined me)-
from radiating that disarming smile.

Today,
My sweetest smile
Speaks of my saddest thought.
I must strain
To express
My happiest moment.