“Her Smile”
Friends around the table
Sharing food and laughter
She sits to my right
Feeling less than herself...
The nausea’s back
So she’s not eating
They ask what they can do
And she smiles ”nothing”...
It’s been years
Since the first attacks
And the weekly visits
To emergency rooms...
She’s been better
For sometime now
So tonight’s feelings
Really scare her...
“What if it’s back?” she says
“I can’t do this again”
Her chin trembling
As my heart breaks for her...
When she looks my way
I smile back
Her stomach’s churning
As she prays the dizziness away...
Her everyday courage moves me
To love her all the more
Then the table turns boisterous
Engulfing our momentary connection...
The happy stories bolster her
She connects in the friendship
Forgetting her fear and laughing
For the first time in a long time...
Her smiling face entrances me...just as it did way back then...
When we found each other...in our other lives and escaped.
Paul Colaluca (11/11/09)