“Life’s been hard for a while now, pandemic, aging, and other duress. Her husband no longer cares for her and her adult son cannot handle the stress.

Too tough, too messy, too hard, too old; no one wants her help or care. Husband and son want her out ‘right now!’ They both want her out of their hair.

And so, she cries, she worries, she frowns, and then she gives them what they want. She finds another place to live, her own cross-town apartment.

This wasn’t how she hoped life would go – this double-threat dose of strife, but she practices smiling inside and out. She continues on with her life.

Maybe things will change in time, but right now, she needs to breathe. She dons her smiling mask until her smile is something to bequeath to someone, anyone, if not the ones she originally intended her love for all life must continue on until sunshine returns above … until someone returns her love.”

NATURAL BEAUTY AND OTHER POEMS, p.18