There once was a boy
With a remarkable smile
It was bright as a star.
It was long as a mile.
It could light up a room.
It could make a new friend
It could ease a bad day
Or help a broken heart mend
You couldn’t help ponder,
Where did it begin.
Did it grow check to check?
Did it grown nose to chin?
One way or another
That smile did grow.
And the boy loved to wear it
Wherever he’d go.
He would smile at school
He would smile on the street
He would smile at who ever
He happened to meet.
When he shared it with others
It made them smile so.
And if they were already smiling
It would make their smile grow.
You had to ask when you saw it
— So bursting with joy —
If the boy had the smile
Or if the smile had the boy.
Once when the boy played
(He’d been smiling all morning)
A stranger approached him
With a mysterious warning
“If I had that smile
I’d be cautious to use it.
It’s brilliant. It’s bright
You don’t want to lose it.”
That’s when it happened
Though it sounds kind of weird,
Just out of the blue,
The boy’s smile disappeared.
There the boy stood
— A blank look on his face —
Thinking a smile like his
Would be hard to replace.
And with all of his heart
He began to lament
Just how he had lost it
Just where it had went.
He thought and he thought
But as hard as he tried
He couldn’t imagine
Where a smile could hide.
He searched high and low
He searched here and there.
He looked in his closet
And under the stair.
He checked the yard and the park
And his school playground.
But that poor missing smile
Was nowhere to be found
He felt sadder and sadder
As he looked for his grin.
Until a frown took the place
Where his smile had been.
He got home that evening
Amid dinnertime chatter
When his mom saw that frown
She asked “Whatever’s the matter?”
“My smile,” the boy responded
With a big, heartbreaking sigh.
“I think I have lost it.”
And he tried hard not to cry.
She said, “You can’t loose a smile,
There’s no cause for dismay!
A smile is never farther
Than a happy thought away.”
And from the corner of his mouth
A grin started to peak
And it grew nose to chin
And it grew cheek to cheek.
Then the boy and his family
All burst into laughter.
And that boy with his smile
Lived happily every after.
The boy and the smile united
And lived happily ever after.
And that boy and his smile
Were united ever after.
Though the seed planted by the stranger
Had grown to make him to doubt it,
But his smile was never lost!
And he would never be without it!
Fabletime 