The Changes

I look for joy in the corners of smiles where you still hide and I stare out of windows at a world that turns without a centre.

I sing old songs with a newer meaning and I dance like I always did. I thought I saw you in the moon and remembered that’s not where people go- I thought I saw you in the street, and remembered.

I stare at my hands and listen to stories of how rain makes people miserable and how night makes people miserable and how songs make people miserable.

The curtains crack open in my sleeplessness and I stare at a blurry blackness, where the joy in your smile is at the front of my mind with your shoes and your shirts and your songs.

I look for joy in the corners of smiles, where joy is hardest to find.

Poem: Martha O'Brien | Illustration: Charley Wallner

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