She Beams A Smile At Me Poem by Sarah Mkhonza

The smile she beams at me,
Has a gap in between the teeth,
It comes at me at night,
And when I walk along the path,

The lips are familiar,
As are the eyes of her,
They are of someone I know,
This woman, this carrier,
Of me when I was the invalid,
That was born and could not,
Either walk or talk or hold,
But just lie in the shadowed
Cloud of the warmth of her hands,

She walked away one day and came back,
Across the fords I see her walking away,
Then see her emerging above the river,
Only to leave me crying again as she leaves,
Then came the day when she ascended,
To a there beyond the fords of rivers,
Familiar fords of river sand and rocks,
To a land shadowed by the clouds,
Never to return and be touched by me,

Yet still I see her smile,
It has a gap in between the teeth,
Even my five years can see it,
For she taught me how to tie shoe laces,
To count the holes of the shoe,
And tie a knot that would see
me walk through each day of life,
Till I return and take them off
To rest and wait for another.

I see her lips speaking the words,
That arrest my ears when I start deeds,
Against the big book of life that she read,
Each day while I watched her smile,
With the gap in between the teeth,
Which she beams back at me like a float,
From another place where the carnival
has stated,
Whose dance I will remember carried on her back,
For she is no horse, yet she saddled me,
No mule, yet she pulled me forward,
No joke, yet she had me laughing
With deeds that touch my heart,
Like the fire she kindles in me,
And make me leap in a dance of years,
That brings together our pasts,
And weave our smiles with this togetherness
Whose warmth has a lingering effect,
That is drawn from our intertwined lives,
Like a tree and its saplings,
That yearn to see the sun above,
For the warmth came to me alive,
And etched the smile she flashes back
As she turns her neck to see for real
That live this life like no other,
Doing the deeds she smiled about.