Poem: Teuta’s smile!

By Arian Galdini

(For my mother)

You do not smile

like someone looking for joy.

You smile like a woman

who has crossed narrow days

and did not let weariness

make law upon her face.

They call you Teuta.

An old royal name.

Yet in you

the kingdom wears no crown,

commands nothing,

stands above no one.

In the way you receive a person

without adding another stone to his day.

In the way you carry pain

without turning it into judgment.

In the way you give of yourself

without making goodness look tired.

Your smile

does not stay on the lips.

It lowers the harsh voices a little.

It lets those breathe

who return late,

with broken words,

unable to quiet

the winter inside them.

Mother,

I do not say only

that you loved me.

I say the savagery of life

stopped for a moment

at your mouth

and found no permission

to become a face.

That quiet smile remained.

Not as victory.

Not as display.

Not even as comfort.

Only so that a son,

when he loses the way back,

may know himself again

by your name,

Teuta.

Arian Galdini