when all you can do is smile

Amma's trembling hands held the acceptance letter. Her son, a Tamil poet, had won the PAYBO grant. She couldn't afford much, but she'd saved every penny, earned through late nights, so he could write. He'd written about displacement, about carrying home in your heart across continents. About their village, their language, their roots that stretched across oceans. When the news came, she simply smiled. Not from happiness alone, but from knowing their sacrifice meant something. Their story mattered. His words would echo through the diaspora, reminding others they weren't forgotten. In that smile lived generations.