The Memory Of A Smile Poem by Bill Mitton

The memory of a smile long gone
returns to warm me on
this windy March morning
and in it’s swirling song
the happy counterpoint
of gentle laughter

For we were children of
this quartered moon
hip joined in childhood’s
joyful wanderings.
Rascal partners upon
a rocky mischief trail

We were the young immortals
unbreakable in space or time
given wings to fly
across the skies of youth
small lords of the domains
without a far horizon

Yet the Gods and Nature
conspired against us
and in one dark night you
and your smile became
a legacy, to be fixed
within the amber of my mind.

I watched the sad tapestry of
your earthly leaving
with unbelieving eyes
for I was sure you would return
as we had always done before
tired contrite and hungry.

Another March wind blew
before my hope and expectation
grew into the certainty of death
the black stone was not
your hiding place, I knew now
you would not come, you could not come

Never does the March wind blow
That your smile shines through
my minds amber once more
Yet their is no sadness in it
only the glow of childhood’s joy
for in our time we knew no other
nor could we have, nor should we have,