After Akhtar Jawad, Learn How To Smile Without A Reason Poem by Ravi Kopra

"learn how to smile without a reason"
when attending a funeral
of someone you love,
when remembering those who
lost their lives protecting us,
when everyone is standing in
silence bowing their heads down
paying homage to them,
when you boss tells you
your work is no good and you
may be laid off if you don't improve,
when somebody is drowning in the river
and doesn't know how to swim,
when somebody is bleeding to death
lying on the road in an accident,
when you are window shopping in a mall
or sitting on a bench watching people
passing by you in a park or a mall,
you look at them eye to eye
and begin smiling at them without a reason
and when somebody asks you: hey dude, what is
wrong with you, are you a looney?
You simply reply: I am a fan of
Akhtar Jawad, the musla paki Karachi poet
who writes poems in Paki English and tells
me to "learn how to smile without a reason"
and so, come rain, come sunshine, come
death, come disasters in any goddamn season
or on any goddamn occasion, I am learning
how "to smile without a reason because
my heart becomes a moon in the night
and the stars become its ear rings
that jingle day and night and every
moment of my life is filled with delight
when I smile without a reason and sometimes
to prove that I am like the poet a little looney
I laugh too like he, he, he, he! without a reason.