Raging inside his 6-foot-two frame because he couldn't
Understand what was attacking him from within
My mother, poor fish
Wanting to be happy, beaten two or three times a
Week, telling me to be happy: "Henry, smile!
Why don't you ever smile?"
And then she would smile, to show me how, and it was the
Saddest smile I ever saw
One day the goldfish died, all five of them
They floated on the water, on their sides, their
Eyes still open
And when my father got home he threw them to the cat
There on the kitchen floor and we watched as my mother
Smiled
To escape their cycle, the fish had to die.  At this point, she realizes that she has a way out.  As morbid as it is, she still has to smile at the mere existence of a way out.  Also, through her conditioning, she has little reaction to anything other than putting on her smile and facing the horrors of her days.
A smile to remember