radiant: smile

Here's one for the weary, the tired, the poor. The ones who believe that there is nothing left in life, sitting on piles of trash, rifling through the empty tin cans. The ones who pity the homeless, the lost and the found. The keys that never found a lock to grasp tightly ripped from their dignity and stripped of their peace.

Smile.

Here's to the girl in gym who was picked last, the self-conscious girl who walked through the doors of the bathroom to change in a stall while the rest strip of their clothing, insecurity at the bottom of their minds. The girl who was left by a boy who never knew quite what was right, the fickle, the indecisive, the cheaters, the heart-breakers. Here's to the girl who never found her way, the girl who got knocked up on her fourteenth birthday, the girl who lost all her hair during chemo therapy, but still got a date to the dance that Friday night. Here's to the girls of the world.

Smile.

Here's to the warmth of a home, the 'h' and the 'o' and the 'm' and even the 'e', you make the world a place a meaning of trust and belief. The hope that never seemed to cease to amaze all of thee, the kindness that never stopped giving to charity of everywhere and here.

Smile.

Here's to your smile, the dimples that trace along your face, the freckles that blotch all around, the teeth that are white as the blank page on a Word document, the lips painted pink like this morning's grapefruit. Here's to your laugh, the tinkling sound that floats amidst the airy air, the cool fresh dew that is left after a rain on a spring morning, here's to spring that awakens after a long hard depressing winter, it always comes. It always will. Here's to your eyes, the brown, brown, brown. Shaded and lined with coal dark black lashes, framed with every right intention.

Smile.

Here's to the girl that has lost hope, the girls that frowned and made herself seem any less than perfect, the girl who got a 'C' on her midterm, the girl who threw up in the girl's bathroom during MCAS, here's to the girl who never shared her first kiss with anyone special, the girl who forgot to shave this week for soccer. Here's to the girl who's fighting an invisible battle, hopeless and lost, the girl who forgot how to smile.

Smile.

Here's to you fickle people, the ones who cannot remember last week, or didn't catch a good night's sleep. Here's to all of you who are scared, fearful of a tomorrow, worried towards next week, face the ending, and smile.

Smile. Smile. Smile.

Here's to the color brown, a forgotten one, a frowned upon one. Brown no better than green, red or yellow; black no worse than white or pink or purple. Here's to you, brown.

Smile.

Here's to the look in your eyes, the way you bit your lip with a crooked lopsided grin, the expression I can't shake from my head, the eyes that won't cut me slack, the voice that tantalizes and pulls my braided hair. Here's to the scissors I use to chop the locks off, the groans and the moans of every sore body part after a long day. Here's to the words and phrases, the adjectives, the verbs, the rhetoric, the iambic pentameter, the definitions I have never been quite sure of, the big words I've never quite used right, the expansion of vocabulary and the freedom of expression I take for granted every damn day.

Smile.

Here's to the tears that fell from my cheeks, the guarded eyes, the fierce words, the biting tears, the clenched fists, the nails dug into palms and the bleeding of my lips. Here's to the crack and the shatter of pieces, the goodbye to everything I've become accustomed to. Here's to the pity that shines brightly in those browns, the flash of anger, the whip of being defeated. The touch of your hands, the electrifying intimacy, the quickening of my heart beat. Here's to all of the haunting I'm facing due to a lack of your presence.

Smile.

Here's to the breaking of my heart, the broken pieces that were ripped and torn to little itty bitty pieces; scattered among the many bodies in a room, the hot sweaty touch, the intimidatingly touch that seem too real to be possible; the plausible ideas, and the palpable emotions shot throughout all of our bodies. Here's to the typing of the keys, the clicking of buttons, the touching of our lips. Here's to the sinking of my heart, the buildup of fury and passion. The anger that lashes through, the questionable stares, the hurt that scathes my face, battle wounds; I am a soldier. Here's to the jumping, here's to the free-falling, and here's to the crashing.

But here's to you, my dear.

Smile.

*R&R*

-another moment gone-