The Archaic Smile

Marmoreal and built to last
while temples tumble down,
that cryptic smile from the past
outlasts the modern frown.

Behind those lips a few perceive
a crafty mind at work,
a few lost souls who can’t believe
the smile’s not a smirk.

The corners of the mouth express
Arcadian content,
as alien to our distress
as one can represent.

Its sculptor’s hand betrayed no angst
that we can understand,
we wretches who exist amongst
old ruins in the sand,

and treasure for its honesty,
its utter lack of guile,
the greatest Grecian legacy —
the lost Archaic Smile.
Copyright © 1996, 1997 by Keith Allen Daniels.

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