Her Radiant Smile

Each at opposite ends of their lives
the old woman, the young woman
encountered one another on a snowy
woodland path. It's all right, nothing will
awaken her, she spent the first month of
her life in hospital, heard noise around
her everywhere, assured the young mother
with a soothing smile. Her baby so tiny
hardly to be noticed snuggled against
her mother's breast inside the winter 
jacket zipped protectively, taking up
less room than she had while still in the
womb, noticeable then, as she is not now.
Beside them, a quiet little boy who 
preceded his sister by a scant few years
looking curiously about him at the 
noisy antics of the two small dogs 
accompanying the old woman. And 
she as though mesmerized unable to
wrench her eyes away from what stood
before her, captivating her mind conjuring
memory. The radiant young mother with
her two children and she reduced in years
with her two surrogate children her own
old enough to be the young woman's
mother with that appealing piquancy of
the mythic beauty of generations. They
parted, each musing over an impression.