Where did all the smiles go?

Where did all the smiles Go? 

where did the smiles go
who stole them?
i found one a little rusty beside a box of achievements
and yet another, stuffed in a makeup bag
there was one accidentally caught in the junk mail, of someone's email account
and another framed in an orthodontist's office
i remember a time
when money didn't have to be used as bait
when winning wasn't the reason
and crude humor didn't pull the trigger
a time when
smiling wasn't a mask
a facade
a task that required effort
wasn't an attack
a weapon designed, with hidden purposes 

because if my memory serves me right
those long-forgotten smiles
the ones perhaps retained in photographs and dreams
were free
they caught faces like the summer breeze does
with no intention
these smiles created art, not graffiti
the love, the joy, the faith so evident
they were not worn for a camera
but were so unconscious, so unplanned, so unaware
not even the turn of the lips could predict such wonder 

and these smiles were not just found at the lips
but in the eyes. 

where did all the smiles go? 

i found one, on a little girl's window when the first day of spring sent lilies
on the assignment covered desk of a teenager, messy except for a note from mom saying his favorite sandwich is in the fridge
there was one between strangers on a rainy day, both pedestrians forgetting umbrellas
one on a hot cup of chocolate, handed to a man sleeping next to a dumpster. 

it's when i find these rare ones
that i am reminded of the beautiful Truth
this world just cannot erase