He lay in the hollow
scooped from his Present,
and could not emerge,
could not see back
into his past,
nor go forward
into his Future.

Here was no cause,
and no effect,
no real relief
no end to anything.

So he smiled at grief,
the pain within,
the problems,
weighing upon him.

Smiles that friends
took, mistakenly,
at their face value.