Suffering and smiling

I wake up in the morning
And see blood on the dining
It is the blood of my brother
Who was hung the day before
Yet I smile; the smile of pain.

I walk through the streets
Along the boulevards; the boulevards
that reek of pain and hardship
The skeletons of all stillborn promises
Now turn in their catacombs
Yet we all beam with our smiles

We smile smiles of defeat
Impoverished by those who have promised
Us freedom; those who have sold us for shekels of silver
We smile at the termite who eats into us and makes us rot

Who shall restore our original smiles
Who shall turn the rivers of tears into joy
We are in continual search of the smiles
The smiles that elude us.