the memory of a smile

 the ones who guide have not seen all the map

but are so confident in their deep sense

of this old world that their most sharp intense

demand does not presage some sort of trap

and yet we fall the pain comes in a slap

we have been fooled there's no means of pretense

the shock is sudden and the hurt immense

and it will take a whole life to unwrap

the meaning that is hidden in the deep

caverns of time in which we now must hide

both pain and fortune still there is a while

between the losses and the hope we keep

where salves exist for both respect and pride

and in that space the memory of a smile