Your smile

Love and its effect on a lonely, longing heart

Your smile

When you smile

I recall

The first rosy dawn

Seen in the crimson Himalayas

From a rented villa balcony

Overlooking an echoing deep valley;

The first live rainbow,

Glimpsed from a crowded train,

The huge band,

Arching over a vast plain

Freshly flooded by the white rains,

The colours lighting up the rain-waters

Like broken emeralds;

The first hearty giggle of a toddler

Being tossed by a soldier-papa

Just

Returned from a harrowing war

From Afghanistan,

The first smile of a terminally-ill patient,

Slightly recovered and optimistic,

At the caring visitor from

A dim past,

And---

The grin flashed at a customer

By an ageing Thai mother

Selling fruits and hats,

From her flat boat

In the floating market of Bangkok;

Yes, dear,

Your smile

That captures the freshness of life

And says it all

Through that slight curve

Of full luscious

Red lips

And a round mouth

That glows in the night

Like a baby-moon

In the profound rain-forests

Still visited by the spirits

From cultures of yore.