Not A Smile Smile Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

not a smile smile

The wall between the road and houses
had graffiti and slogans on its grey, sodden flanks
as guarding the systematic deficiency of need.
The townscape of bleakness is like an endless
a funeral march in rain, substituting for tears anyone
had, for those who willfully die of hunger.
By the wall, on the narrow pavement, a lone figure
walks fast as not sensing the drizzle
he appears to be smiling.
Perhaps his wife had given birth to a son, or he
had won the lottery.
The wheel of a truck explodes, hits and pins him
to the wall, and we shall never know why he smiled