Simon Wilson
Smiling at Strangers
My mother gazes serenely from the photograph on her Order of Service and smiles as we gather for her funeral. She was, as the picture shows, a real beauty in her youth. I remember how people used to talk about the power of her smile. We didn’t know at the time, but the genetic die was cast and the condition that would eventually destroy her was already working deep inside. Even at the end, she still had the smile, she just didn’t know who she was smiling at.
white lilies
a moment of perfection
inevitably
a single petal
falls
About the Author
Simon Wilson has been a poultry farmer, salesman, antique dealer, gardener, and instructor on a Care Farm. He now works in a coin shop and wishes he had tried harder at school.