Where Has Your Smile Gone?

 
                                where has your smile gone
                                o daughter of my youth?
                                you have aged before your time.
                                on a face ravaged by unnamed grief,
                                your eyes now blank cesspools of despair
                                like a light bulb that has been switched off,
                                staring  silently and sullen.

                                if I can bring back just a fraction
                                of that sun-drenched smile,
                                or hear your laughter dance across the room;
                                to watch  your  happy feet tap
                                a familiar rhythm on the floor,
                                my heart would soar on gossamer wings of hope.
                                and maybe, just maybe , for a little while,
                                the tears will cease to fall, and our world
                                will be right again, o daughter of my youth.