SILENT LOVE

If only I could find the words

And put them down in rhyme,

I'd let you, darling, read just once

What I'm thinking all the time.

But proper words elude me;

I sit and stare in space.

Somehow it leaves me speechless,

When I visualize your face.

My love, I know, is far too deep

To write or try to talk,

For, darling, I am helpless,

When I see you dance and walk.

I guess my love will live and die,

And you will never know;

For you'll go out with others,

Who'll love and tell you so.

But I'll just keep on loving you,

As long as time shall be,

And you will never, never know

Just what you were to me.

John L. Gwaltney

ONE LOST

Farewell to the haunts of my childhood days,

Farewell to the hills and the streams;

Farewell to the pond behind Tucker's Slough,

Where we swam and talked of our dreams.

One would be rich, another have fame;

One wanted to stay with the land,

One would be a doctor, another fly;

Another would lead his own band.

Those years we were lucky; I think we all knew

The world held no greater wealth.

We all stayed together, lived the life we all loved

We were young and were blessed with good health.

Then out of the blue, without warning it came,

The first serious thing in our life.

The world was at war; we knew only to well

We'd all take part in the strife.

Again we were lucky, we lost only one;

But our paths had parted too wide.

We've never got back to the pond on the Slough;

We were scattered like drift on the tide.

John L. Gwaltney