Smile

My grandmother taught me
how to spot a false smile. Look
at the wrinkles, she said, tracing
my father’s face, stilled in picture.
The clenched jaw eats the lip’s
natural upward pull. Skin tight around
the eyes but unwrinkled. She said
he was always polite.









Claire S. Lee is a student at Canyon Crest Academy. Her writing has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and appears or is forthcoming in Blue Marble Review, Rising Phoenix Review, and Eunoia Review, among others. She works as an editor for COUNTERCLOCK and as an editorial intern for The Blueshift Journal. Though she loves poetry and nonfiction, her favorite genre is historical fiction.