This Smile

I traced the line of your lips

with my finger,

I touched your cheek.

That was all it took, really —

that kind of attention

calls forth affection

as if out of nowhere

I smile. You are not sure —

you really hope to believe it

but I have been less than warm

for longer than I’d noticed.

So you’ll look again

with that hope in your eyes,

hope for this smile,

which, really,

how could I have withheld it?

©Wendy Mulhern

April 15, 2016