That the passage of time is the cruelest
most terrible crime levied against humanity
is scarcely more apparent elsewhere than in your smile
an old picture of an older lady and I see the treachery
and I see the girls behind the smiles
and I see the girls that became women
and I see the girls that the years have hidden
and I see the girls in your winsome eyes
and I see the girls that would never have disappeared
had the world been in fact a thing made by a benevolent god
rather than a thing of chance that has made for sentience
a foul fate of weathering you girls into old ladies
when so short a time ago you made game of the world
and you made names for yourselves
and you made romance
and you made merry with loved ones
and you made laughter and tears
and you made homes for your own girls
that will find a similar fate in their best fortune of weathering into old ladies.

Originally published in the Somewhere?! during When?! of Whenly?!.