JAVISTH BHUGOBAUN
Where do you hide your smile?
Is it trapped behind the broken glass of a framed picture,
Or in your letters, under your bed,
Those that you write to yourself.
Did you hide it where you hide your thoughts,
(The precious ones)
Or on the steel white bench where we used to laugh?
For I believe, that if you smile now,
The mirror will find spider webs, deep in your dimples,
as you practice an old habit.
But maybe it is the anchor in your heart
That sank your smile.
There is a loneliness in your world so great,
That you can see it in the slow movement of
The hands of time,
Circling an endless route,
Like waves coming slowly crashing to the shore.
I wish you left your house more often
Or allow me to visit you.
I would erase the memory of the sun flirting with your skin,
For you to feel it like a newborn.
For you to remember what warmth feels like.
For you to see the stars and suns and moons
Circle the world.
I heard that you gave all your favourite books and passions away
And maybe this is what happened to your smile.
You used to show your smile to every eye so proudly,
Brightening their days,
Until the clouds came.
The memory of you shining with happiness is shadowing… fading.
Like an old picture not taken care of.
I hope you stop watching yourself in a broken mirror,
For you are not bits and pieces, and the split reflections
are not the real image.
Even though, broken mirrors can still reflect light.
Your eyes look like a mourning sea
As you would walk by me.
You would look at me and smile,
And it was the saddest smile I ever saw.
I hope this is not the epilogue of your smile,
As the play is just starting and the bobbin is yet
To be unravelled. Maybe, you will find your smile,
In a sealed envelope or,
In the slow movement of the hands of the clock or,
In a hug, around arms, you haven’t met yet.
The deepest poems are those hidden under our beds,
Like your smile.
