The Remembered Smile

Everybody’s 
Smiling in Spain:
Children, old men,
Gossips at portals,
Lovers entwined
-Two-headed flamingos-
See themselves smiling
In each other’s eyes.
Everybody’s 
Smiling in Spain:
Widows in black,
Ossified bundles
On park benches
Smile;
Peasants, splay-footed,
On cathedral steps
Smile;
Waiters taking orders
Are smiling importantly;
Shopkeepers, tourists,
Bureaucrats and babes
Smile for the camera,
For papá y mamá,
Smile and smile and smile.


I dip my spoon
And smile
Into my coffee cup.
The boy serving me
Smiles back
Uncertainly.
The girls beside me
Smile knowingly,
As around the bar
And into the mirror 
I look.


From my lips
The glimmer of a smile
Evaporates mysteriously.
Stirring my coffee
Round and round
Slowly,
I remember someone,
Then sip.

Plaza Virgen, Valencia 13 viii 86