Trivarna Hariharan

Trivarna Hariharan Poems

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The Art Of Smiling

He’d smile.
Always.
So much that it became quite irksome,
At times.
It wasn’t like his world was perfect.
It wasn’t like he was infallible.
It was just that
He revelled in his
Imperfection.
Some called him silly,
And some couldn’t stand the sight of
a person with so much of
bliss within.
But I often wondered why
No one ever saw
How with every lofty smile
The hole in his heart widened.
I wondered why
No one ever saw how
His lower lip always trembled
A tad
Before putting on that
Deceiving façade.
He’d smile.
Always.
He’d taught himself to.
So he smiled
When the fish
In his aquarium died.
So he smiled
When the first
Love of his life
Told him that he wasn’t good enough.
So he smiled
When his best friend
Forsook him
For a richer mate.
So he smiled
When they accused him
Of things he hadn’t done.
So he smiled
When his father
Beat his mother up
For no reason.
So he smiled
When all everybody had for him
Was loathing.
He’d smile.
Always.
It was his camouflage.
What a perfidious misleading thing
His smile was.
I wonder if anybody ever bothered
To gauge his tears.
The tears that he wanted people
To see
Beneath the smile.
And the fact that
He wasn’t the impeccable person
He posed to be.
I wonder if anybody ever cared
To learn that
He wasn’t an angel
Bestowed with all the happiness in the world
He was just a man
Who had mastered the art of
Smiling.
Always.

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