Salesgirl Smile
I do not blame you for your falseness,
your well-conditioned hair,
an ever-willing handshake
and that dazzling smile.
If life must mark us-
coalminer's hands, doctor's health,
you merely stand to lose sincerity.
To lose only this is accomplishment.
So I don't know why it makes me sad
to see that enamelled smile.
Perhaps your radiant glow
is worse than ill-intent,
knows darkness so deep
not even love can escape,
because you lean to me like a flower
collapsing under its own weight of sweetness,
ever-sinking, ever-rising to lift itself
from a colourless despair.
Tokyo, April 1995
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