119.365 - he finds three old pictures of himself

a more-or-less handsome boy stares back at himself
caught by surprise all three times
but quick enough to have smiled every time
he remembers that smile
he learned it in this country
it masked the rage and torment of being here
of having lost what friends he had
with no one to replace them
no one to trust
of having lost his mother
for the strange woman the doctors sent back
for knowing his father as…well…at best a traitor
who valued himself above almost anyone
ah, it was a good smile that covered all that
and gave the world a boy happy to fit in
a boy who taught himself to be a marksman
with his rifle and his pistol
and cleaned his guns wearing that smile
staring beyond them into someday maybe