The Smile-Eaters

By Richard MacNeill

They interrupt your smiling stroll

like trapdoor spiders

with fangs of retort

yet worse because they 

fly a flag that says ‘friend’

They strip your smile

to sustain their hunger

their unsatisfiable need

Oft misunderstood of these people

is that they only feast on smiles

but it is not so

for they also enjoy masticating

your sorrow

It is all a matter of 

happenstance the food they see

in their trance

with blind habit

they poison the organs of joy

to green slime

and the husk they cast aside

But one can heal from these wounds

and the effects of the poison forget

causing unknowing return

to the lairs of the smile-eaters

Eventually after 

enough angry exhaustion

one can become immune

to the careless traps and poison

and they’ll be offended by your absence

But you learned

and keep your smile safe at home

By Richard MacNeill