Lessons Learned

Smiles

She stands on her tippy toes to stare over the sink at her reflection

A smile stretches across her mouth to reveal her widely gapped teeth

The smile is not one brought forth by happiness

It was one meant to remind her of the dentist's promise

that her teeth would shift naturally over time into a closed tooth smile

and close they did

She brushes the hair away from her face

so that her eyes look back at her in the mirror

Her cracked lips pull back over her teeth in more of a grimace than a smile

The dullness in her eyes matched the pain in her crooked lips

but her lips would stay bent nonetheless

in hopes that the shine in her eyes would return

And so the shine did

She lifts up the edge of her shirt

to gently prod at the slightly pudgy skin

that she perceived to be much more hefty than reality showed her

She stared at that deceitful midsection in the mirror

And let her eyes rise to see the shaky, waterlogged grin on her face

because she would lie to her body the same way it lied to her

until they ended on the same page

And eventually they did

She sees the bright smile in the mirror

as soon as she flicks on the bathroom light

Her smile is straight, closed tooth, pretty

She brags about never having to endure the pain of braces

Her eyes are lively, dancing with laughter

She laughs a lot and she laughs the loudest

often causing the rest of the room to chuckle along

Her body is only a secondary thought

so different from her past when it was her whole character

beginning, middle, and end

There's no tears on her face,

no shadows in her eyes,

no pinching at her skin in desperation

There is a second set of eyes though

Clawing at the sink

and reaching to see themselves in the mirror

She lifts up the little eyes and little body they belong to

She sits them on the sink

"Look at that beautiful smile,"

She tells her baby boy

And look he does, eyes wide and smile wider