what is that?
how do you do that?
mona lisa’s got an enigma
but like da vinci
you painted a mystery
and that mystery
is a smile.
how do you do that?
that’s not an enigmatic smirk
that is ecstatic
with erratic curiosity
looking for pragmatic explanations
behind what is there
and most possibly isn’t.
but unlike mona lisa
it’s not a question of
smiling or the presence of anti-smile,
there is emphatic unspoken
rhetoric
that states
indeed it is a smile
and I might be sounding dogmatic
but it is irrefutably,
monochromatically,
a smile.
and a nice one at that.
but how do you do that?
it’s still mysterious.
like looking at something
that’s obviously there
but having a gut feeling
that it’s an iceberg
and you can only see the very tip top
and there’s an entire glacier
hidden under
how do you do that?
i don't meet many craftsmen
but one i'd like to greet
is the one who crafted your mask
that makes me doubt;
what is perfection?
am i simply mesmerized
by the curl of your mouth
and the squint of your eyes
when you smile?
or is there, somewhere outside my field of knowing
a master mask maker
toiling on endless tasks
designing masks that look like faces?
or is that really your face
and if so
were you first in line
when the angels were painting?
all this from a smile.
there’s this feeling of unknowing
like seeing a veil
and knowing that there’s something under
but the very thought
seems distorted by water
that dampens ideas
until you aren’t really sure
is it a veil or is it a goblet?
a goblet filled to the brim with wine
that’s been aged with years of stories
and of jokes and bad puns
and hands held and tiny whispers
that end in a smile.
that smile.
what is that?
how do you do that?
while I could keep asking these questions
I believe it is beyond courtesy to do so
and so here, shortened by the policy
of being polite and proper, I’ll say;
nice smile.