Why would you smile at a stranger at the store? 

This morning the cat wrecked her pristine couch and 
Gouged with lion claws the eyes of her nascent smiles. 
Her son got the cue and stood in the path of a passing flu
That knocked him out of his bed onto a sick one
Where temperatures rose and fell to the sound of
The neighbour complaining about the ball that wrecked a 
Window. Yesterday, her boys launched a satellite
Off course that took the pieces of glass to the trash. 

Why would you smile at the stranger at the store? 

Because sometimes, 
That all she's got, 
It's all she's got. 

(c) nyonglema