Only the Smile

I’m disappearing like that crooked cat

Not all at once—more delicate than that

First my shadow forgets my feet

Then my name slips out of reach

I write it down on scraps of air

But every letter isn’t there

The ink runs backward off the page

Like it refuses me a shape

The trees lean in like they understand

Drop silver keys into my hands

But every lock I try to find

Is gone or changing in its mind

And there—

That grin again, ahead of me

Floating where I used to be

Too wide, too calm, too sure, too still

Like it knows I always will

Only the smile remains

Hanging where I lost my name

One more key I can’t explain

One more door that looks the same

Only the smile stays on

Even when the rest is gone

Check the mirror—something’s wrong

It’s still here… I’m moving on

Only the smile stays bright

Glowing soft in borrowed light

I fade out of every scene

But it lingers in between

I tried a door behind a veil

It opened into the same tale

Another hall of numbered frames

None of them would hold my name

Mirrors line the narrowing walls

Each one late to when I fall

They show a girl I almost knew

Smiling back the way you do

I touch the glass—it ripples thin

Like something else is stepping in

And for a second, clear and wild

The mirror keeps me… loses the child

Only the smile remains

Hanging where I lost my name

Every key has changed its shape

Every door just fades away

Only the smile stays on

Even when the rest is gone

Check the mirror—call my name…

If I’m gone, it stays the same

I drink to see if I come through

But every swallow tastes like you

Sweet at first, then something slips—

A bitterness that stains my lips

Cards with faces call my bluff

Say I was always made of stuff

That disappears when love is done

A trick of light, a vanishing one

They deal me out, then deal me through

Hearts go missing, spades turn blue

Kings forget the rules they spoke

Queens just laugh like it’s a joke

I trade my name for one more key

But it won’t stay the same with me

Every tooth of every lock

Shifts the second that I knock

The crown slips off, the verdict’s read

“Off with nothing,” something said

And all I am just drifts apart

Like smoke that used to be a heart

The grin grows closer—fills the sky

Wider than I remember I

And for a moment I can’t tell

If I’m the ghost or it as well

I find a door that has no frame

Carved with what might be my name

But all the letters twist and slide

Like they don’t want me inside

The key dissolves between my teeth

Leaves a hollow underneath

I try to speak—there’s just that curve

Hanging where I lose the nerve

Only the smile remains

Wearing what I couldn’t save

All my keys are in its teeth

Every door leads into me

Only the smile stays on

Now it knows where I belong

Check the mirror—don’t get close…

It will learn you like it knows