I saw faces
Laughing and smiling
Joking around and being real
Nothing seemed made up.

The widest spread lips
Carrying the brightest of all smiles
And shiniest of all faces
Making their fellows laugh
And wheezing along.

But eyes said it all
They always betray.
With every smile emerging
Appears a tiny droplet
In the corner of an eye
That waits to fall off
But hands wipe them away
Or brain pulls it back
Pretending it never existed.

And it falls on the heart
Adding to the river of grief
That flows through the cracks
Of the torn apart flesh
And the face continues being real
Like no one saw what happened.

But I did.
I saw every little detail
Of that droplet
Composed of memories
and sighs and regrets.
The ifs and buts,
The question and exclamation marks

That continues
Till one droplet of that kind
Fell off my eye, too,
Rolling down the cheek
Burnt the skin
And stole my smile,
Giving me reason
Why the laughing faces
Never let their droplets fall off
Snatching the smile away.

© Fatima Zafar