The Lost Smile Poem by C.F. Wilkins

The blissful new excitement
Of infant explorations
Show a world of life's wonders
With marvelous expectations.

The smile of a trusting heart
Upon a pure face
Has no reason to doubt,
No reason for disgrace.

Then as life would have it,
Reality becomes real
And the eyes of diamond grace
See what years reveal.

Friendship's slippery hand
Seems firm to hold at first,
But is unstable water
That fails in trouble's thirst.

Sparkling starlight dreams
Are given up as lost,
Ending in shattered pieces
By yielding to fate's cost.

Perceived with suspicion,
By wrong assumptions battered,
The innocent smile changes,
Becoming worn and tattered.

And what melody lies
Within a wish to name
If the song of heart
Has no joy to claim?

The expression of a face,
The valley of a grim tale,
Then shows the lines of time
Engraved on memory's trail.

And the melody that lies
Within a wish to name
Searches the song of heart
For a lost smile to claim.