multiple smiles.

it was raining particularly hard and I was soaking wet
i woke up way too early for an 11am mass and it was so cold
i was tired from the trip and was a bit grumpy
i kept complaining to my mom
then this little kid came up to me
and with a smile on her face
said "merry christmas ate! gusto mo ng sampaguita?"
she didn't begged and she kept on smiling
and just like that my day got better
---------------

we were at the sala and little Draven was being put to sleep
my younger cousins were sifting through old photographs
and my mom and aunts were pouring red wine and soju
my sister was looking at my cousins' yearbooks
and my other cousins were singing and
laughing rather loudly outside
we were all smiling
---------------

i went down because i was tired of posing at the photobooth
and because there were too many people i don't know
and too many people staring at me
i had to keep smiling though because it was the polite thing
to do
--------------

i caught him smoking and looking far away
my sister and cousins followed us
and my other cousin smoked with him
he became the butt of our jokes, green and otherwise
we kept teasing him about being single for the first
time in five years and he just kept on smoking
and smiling
and as the jokes go on
the cigarette butts on the floor kept on piling too
---------------

i kissed him on the cheek
and whispered sorry for all the jokes my cousins and sister
made on his behalf and
for reminding him about his love problems
he just smiled at me and said
"don't worry ate, strong ata to noh"
and i also just smiled back