*****

Recorded Reading (2:21): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fvx51rcneo51cu5qb1u0s/Okay-to-Smile.mp3?rlkey=s06lpjp0u8a3fbqqfxhvpdgxr&dl=0

*****

Okay to Smile

Be joyful! Though those sadder souls
Who may be in the near surround
About our song be irritated
By its happy sound

Be joyful! Though when given any
Slightest sneering chance
There some who surely found will be
Who cannot countenance our dance

Be joyful! Fully joyful! No,
Don’t do it just by half
Though some will tell us there is nothing,
But nothing, at which to laugh

Be joyful! Let our clothing
And our sweet expressions too
Put the possibility
Of joy others unto

Let our gestures be expansive
Look no nervous shoulders o’er
Internalize no limitations
Joyless ones before

Let them think we frivolous
And unconsidered be ~
Don’t listen to them, happy friend,
Listen instead to me

Remind them there’s a reason,
Something more, for which to live
Than what security another dollar
Might be sought to give

Remind them that defenses
Are but prisons inside out —
Remind them all that happiness
Is what this life is all about

Perhaps there must be moments
Which less than joyful are,
But if they try to tell us
Perpet’ually we must at war

With everything and everybody
In environs be,
We want no part of such a grim
And stark reality!

We do not our assignments
Of the general work shirk,
But even then allow a smile
Behind our lips to lurk

Meditating that when we
Have gotten done with it
Not just ourselves but loved ones too
Will from our efforts benefit

If others wish in misery
To frown their discontented way
Through every blessed moment
Of every blessed day

We’ll let them live their chosen lives
In their chosen style —
But draw the line when they tell us
It’s not okay to smile!

*****

This poet presently lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

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