Shayna List
Contributor
“you don’t look happy,” he said
some kind of muscle in his earthysmooth face
sagging with some kind of remorse
or empathy
funny how such a question
could rewrite the self-pitying script in my mind
and alert me
to the present time
some kind of steaming, radiating smile
not yet on my lips but brimming in my toes and filling up my inside.
the lawyer
table three
spicy indian curry
four days a week
and yet some kind of friend
in the deepest sense
unknowing of anything about me
and yet on some level, knowing every little fragment and piece
especially that one plastered to my face known as the smile
real, now more than ever.
