This is a sad month.
The chance of another perfect Summers day
Falls away.

September channels melancholy.
Summer crazy turns to calm.
Excitement dies,
We start to pack away the years' memories,
Growth slows,
We ponder.

I have learned nothing.
Autumn's inevitability
Echoes my own, unchanging nature.

Perhaps I can learn from the season's changes,
There are things that I, too, should try to put to bed.
I will try to say goodbye
Not just to sun, and warmth,
But to my mistakes.

It's not a time for sadness
But for welcoming the chance to start again.

I have a scar
That makes it look as if my belly is smiling
like Mona Lisa, a half smile, curving up, and out.
When I stand before the mirror
I cover it with my right hand, automatically,
Pretend it isn't there.
When I try on a bikini
It has to cover the smile, securely.
When I strip for a massage,
Or change in the gym,
I turn aside from prying eyes
And hope they do not see
the ragged rip dividing me in two.
When I was five years old, I nearly died
And the scar saved my life.
So, strange that I reject
what I should embrace, with thankful joy.
Sad, that I can only see the ugly and the now.
If it did not exist, neither would I,
My scarsmile, my reminder,
Here, I shall thank you,
Here, and only here, I can reveal.