Midsummer Poetry Week, day seven

Anatomy of a Smile

When she smiles she commands
Zygomatic major to lift
The corners of her mouth
Levitation of passionate lips
Of trust, friendship and flirting
Evolution’s opening face gambit
Lulls our base suspicions

Eyes join in orbicularis oculi
Direct a crow’s dance on her cheeks
Pointing to the source of light
Brown pools of passion to drown in
Draped in alabaster

La Giaconda that smile or was it?
In the heat of life we need to be clear
It depends how you look at her
A subtle ambiguity, a weak signal
Best viewed from the corner of the eye
Yes, there is something there
Perhaps a promise of a smile

Does she have much to smile about?
Gazed at by millions of punters
Airheading round the Louvre
Perhaps she saying ‘I would smile
If you all stopped looking at me’
Is that the enigma?

Alan Calder

[Pictures from Wikimedia Commons]