unassuming smile

for the benefit of those in the back rows,
please, those in the front rows,
keep your applause until the end...

unassuming smile

there it was. unexpected.
detected only by the
random chance
of happenstance
as I caught something
at the edge of my awareness
like the sound of
bells
or the wind in tree limbs,
stripped of leaves
by the winter cold.

that unassuming smile.

had you seen me in that moment
you would have seen my head
snap
to one side
as though suddenly made aware of
light
in a dark abyss.

after a few skipped heartbeats,
I regained my breath.

the prototype, the archetype.
the earnest and unpretentious smile
so rare and fair and precious
to one such as I,
so used to the practiced spontaneity
of suitors and looters
and reality disputers.

I think I blinked.

how many moments
hours
days
weeks
months
years.
my God, decades
since light was cast in my sphere
by that unassuming smile
set upon a Mona Lisa monument
to the perfection of memory
in the face of a beautiful woman.


William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.

to clear up the definition:

unassuming: not pretentious or arrogant. natural. modest.