WHERE HAVE ALL THE SMILES GONE? 🤔✍️

A little girl of ten, with wonder in her eyes,

Was suddenly forced to grow up, one day;

This twisted accident called 'Life', turned her into 'An Only Child'.

And filled her tiny heart with a million questions, with dismay.

A surprised visitor was greeted at her door,

With that forever brightly beaming face,

"You've taught me how to Smile", he exclaimed,

Of her heart-piercing sorrow, that 'curved line', left no trace.

At thirty, she spent six anxious Christmas days,

Between hospitals, ICU's and an Operating Room, 

While her friends were singing 'Gloria in Excelsis Deo',

She spent those days and nights, in unexpected impending gloom.

Though lost and taken aback by another unforseen reality,

She and her mother, thanked them all with a grateful smile;

"She must have not been close to her Dad", a colleague concluded,

That 'curved line', her natural cover-up, was now her style.

Six months later, the hospital visits resumed,

With a severity and regularity like never before;

Eight years and two cancers later, she was barely thirty-eight,

The Life and Family she once knew and loved, all gone and no more.

Five years since then, she doesn't Smile as much,

Yet each day she tries to find the smallest reason to sing,

"Where have you been? We hardly see you anymore", this recluse is often asked now,

That 'curved line' tied to precious memories, to only that she does tightly cling.✨️