Context

This passage comes from the poem "A Smile to Remember" by Charles Bukowski.

This poem is grim and sad and definitely will not make you smile, despite the total misdirection in the title. The whole thing is about the poet's mother and how she always encouraged him to smile and be happy. Awesome, right? Not so much. Bukowski could never seem to understand why his mom was so determined to be happy when her life was so miserable. Why would she want to smile in the face of her husband's constant beatings?

It didn't make any sense to the poet and it doesn't make much sense to us either. This line is all about pretending. The poet's mom is big on smiles, but when she tries one out, he can see right through it. She might be putting on a happy face, but inside, he can tell she's just a goldfish trapped, circling in her bowl. We sure hope she doesn't get fed to the cat in the end.

Where you've heard it

This line is all about truth, so you've probably heard it when people are trying to cut through the bull and get at the real reason behind those smiles.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

You won't come off as pretentious, but you sure will bum out everyone in the room if you insist on quoting from this poem.