Beautiful Smiles

She smiled at me that day.

In her rusting wheel chair,

with her arms twisted in different ways,

her feet smaller than they should,

she looked at me with her twinkling green eyes,

and smiled, 

looking so joyous,

it broke my heart.

Then, her smile disappeared as soon as it came,

like the clouds blocking the sun.

On the street,

in the midst of a huge crowd,

she lay on her wheelchair,

her eyes darting from side to side,

as she tried to ignore

the staring,

the whispering,

the sudden gasps,

the clucking of tongues,

the look drenched with pity,

the uneasiness,

everything.

At that moment,

I felt this horrible, sharp feeling

pierce my heart.

I ran to her,

giving everybody in the rushing crowd,

a look of anger, disgust,

and when someone,

some heartless, shameless human being,

stopped right in front of her,

and laughed,

cackling like an old hag,

I felt this urge to curl my finger, 

take a swing, 

and knock that person right in the kisser.

But, just then,

I felt her rest her head against my arm, 

and she looked at me with this smile,

the kind of smile I won't be able to imitate 

for a very long time.

This smile was filled with wisdom,

with all the knowledge there is to know,

this smile signified that she understood,

she understood everything.

And when I stood there looking at her with pain,

she smiled, 

and then laughed,

and shook her head,

and then, with some difficulty,

she tugged at my arm,

and pulled me forward,

so I could hear her.

"If all I wanted was for others to pity me,

  to feel sad for me,

  to cry for my misery, my suffering, my pain,

  I would have got what I wanted a long time ago.

  I am human, you know that.

  I breathe, I eat, I cry, I laugh,

  I feel human feelings,

  I know what it is to love,

  I know what it is to feel joy,

  I know every emotion you know,

  therefore, I am as human as you are.

  What is on the outside really does not matter,

  what matters is the content inside all of us,

  our mind, our soul.

  All the people in the world are not alike, 

  and all of us cannot be controlled,

  so why bother about them?

  Someday, in some life,

  they will understand that

  I am no different from them.

  I may not look the same,

  I cannot do half the things they can,

  I may not be able to associate with them, or them with me,

  but in the end,

  removing all unique features from one another,

  we are all the same.

  So please, I have got enough of people,

  pitying me, crying for me,

  what I really need now, 

  is for someone to treat me as their equal,

  because every human being

  is the same,

  and has to be treated the same."

She smiled at me again,

and smiled at the crowd.

I shook my head and smiled,

wiping the tears that were flowing down my face,

and we stood there,

smiling at everybody passing,

hoping and knowing that

acceptance, equality, the purest form of happiness,

wasn't far away.