Smile Poem by Ayon Banerjee

Decked in innocence
and all of thirteen.
Stepping down the school stairs,
with a radiance of
a thousand suns -
it took my breath off.

Her smile.

I was thirteen too,
and too young to know,
that it was in love.

That night I had a 1-O-1,
with a dude on the mantelpiece.
“Can she be mine? ”, I asked.
He stayed mum.
Politically,
and morally right.

I laughed at him,
and took charge.

“Twenty five years! ”,
and we’ll talk,
Said I.

He smiled.
Stony, like a God.

Of course he won,
and I lost.
He’s the grandmaster,
after all.

It’s twenty five years,
and it’s my world now.
Of complex carbs,
and fading dreams.

Saw her today.
On 2D.
It took my breath away
yet again.

Her smile.

It still rings those bells,
and some more –

For, it's still the longest
smile I ever saw.

It started well,
from her lips.
But never really,
touched the eye.

I lost.
She lost.
He lost.