A Smiling Woman

The poet pays tender tribute to the woman with the brain of a surgeon and the heart of a dancer, a woman whose ‘smile in the sun’ weaves a spell of enchantment around the poet.

She’s a brain surgeon

          with a dancer’s heart

She loves mountain lakes

          and rocking chairs

It’s not all about money

          There’s room for art

If it’s a daring adventure

           she dares.

​

No need to speak

          her thoughts out loud

Laying there sunning

          on a floating pier

On the farthest corner

          away from the crowd

Only a knowing smile

          for one stranger near.

​

The kids are grown

          Don’t go to the lake

If only I’d known

          what was at stake

The orange swimsuit

         a smile in the sun

I saw her there

         and I was done,

​

                    so done,

​

                    undone.

E. Martin Pedersen, originally from San Francisco, has lived for over 40 years in eastern Sicily, where he taught English at the local university. His poetry appeared most recently in Ginosko, Metaworker, Triggerfish, Unlikely Stories Mark V, and Grey Sparrow Review among others. Martin is an alumnus of the Community of Writers. He has published two collections of haiku, Bitter Pills and Smart Pills, and a chapbook, Exile's Choice, just out from Kelsay Books. A full collection, Method & Madness, is forthcoming from Odyssey Press.