Possessed by the Ghost

We move, we go.
Walking, moving, going... faster.
Passing.
Just barely crashing... into one another.
Occasionally tripping on uneven pavement squares or rectangles,
stepping on gum, or feces.
One time I walked into a pole so blindly, so hard, that I heard that chinese drum sound that you'd know in a cartoon... and the stars to match.

One humid summer day that was intermittently showered with rain, I horse clotted my feet among the many other clotters on main. We passed downtown stores without a glace; blurs of people not dissimilar to a photographer effect.

My bubble was thick; a wall; bricks.
I looked up only a moment- or, would have been a moment had you not caught my eye with your eyes. A woman drastically out of by social sphere- demographics, psychographics... appearing drastic.

I did not know you.
Why were you smiling at me so genuinely? So excessive? So lingering?

You would not release those tightened muscles until I reciprocated.

I reciprocated genuinely.

But...
I did not know you.
I did not know you until that very moment when the faint sun suddenly ripped through my bubbles and bricks.

Blurs manifested into sharp shapes and colours with faces.
You passed yet, my smile had not faded.
I was infected by your virus and each passing person became victim to a smile- now possessing my face.

I did not know you ...
But since that day I forever pass the ghost of you.
A woman, a stranger, a virus that taught me one of the greatest lessons I have and will ever learn-

The power of a smile.

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