Back Home By Willie Smith

We sit crosslegged in the tub.
We’ve been three days sailing on the Sound
and are pleasantly exhausted.
I soap my face
and Joy begins shaving me.
It takes all the concentration
I can muster to keep from smiling
so she can shave around my lip.
Remembering the low swift boat
rolling over the waves
I watch Joy’s brown eyes as
they focus on the small swipes
that leave my face clean and smooth.
I keep my lips even,
but her smile rises and fades
with every pass of the blade.
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Willie Smith is the author of Nothing Doing, available now from Honest Publishing.