A Farewell to Smooth
If you knew it...a poem for Smooth Challenge.
The world you loved is gone
The gentle smoothness
Emotional warmth and softness
The smoothness and kindness
You loved and cherished
Have been replaced
With sharp, rough edges
That pierce, cut and maim
Farewell to the smooth
You remembered
When you were young
The smooth of the freshly laundered linen
The smooth sound of a loving voice, reading bedtime stories
Lulling you off to sleep
The smooth of the kisses on your forehead
For some
They never knew the joy of the smooth
Their life
Almost exclusively
Revolves around
anything but smoothness
Hard love, tough love
Abusive control, bullying, violence and hate
Pain, suffering, harsh linen, no linen
No smooth spoken bedtime stories
No smooth lipped kisses on the forehead
Say farewell to the smooth
and welcome the abrasive reality of life
For if you knew the smooth
You experienced something others
So rarely do
*
Thanks for reading!
About the Creator
Paul Stewart
Award-Winning Writer, Poet, Scottish-Italian, Subversive.
The Accidental Poet - Poetry Collection out now!
Streams and Scratches in My Mind coming soon!

Comments (13)
I remember this fine piece now. THE Like didn’t come up at first, so I read it again lol.
oh my, this got me to the core.. Yeah, reality is a tough check on our resilience skills sometimes. I loved thi poem! Well done!
Abrasion is how we know we are really here 😁
Welcome to the abrasive reality of life. That hit me so hard. Loved your poem Sir Paul! 🍩🥐
Well-done! I really enjoyed this entry! 🩵
I ran the Angel Tree project for almost a decade at my last appointment. After families had come to pick up their presents, we had a rummage area in the basement where they could pick out whatever they wanted from donated items. One little girl came up & asked us if she could have a set of sheets that had been donated. When we told her yes, she responded, "It's the first time I will ever have had sheets on my bed." If she had been the only one we had served that day, we still would have known why we were there.
Perhaps those of us that were introduced to the realities at an early age were the fortunate ones? A thought-provoking take on the challenge, Sir!
Wonderful job. Nicely done.
Well that's a perky little number...
Sadly true… so many today haven’t experienced the gentle smoothness of love… those of us who have, should try to shine its light on those who cross our path.
love your poem, Paul
Life can be unsmooth (made this word up) but where there is love and tenderness you will feel smooth . We sometimes have to create it ourselves for the domino affect and for the good vibration 🙂🧘🏽♀️😊
Yo!! Indeed! Yet even those that appeared to have had that ..well, many at least will have had more going on beneath the surface that was far from perfect. Because no place or family is perfect, right? Regardless interesting slant! And that idea of linen, what that represents and the smell of it is really effective. ☺️ Just letting you know there is a small accidental typo six line. 😊