An angel's smile

Long ago when I was young
I sat down on a hill.
My brothers, they were calling me
But I just sat there still.

For, what I saw had captured me
And I could never go:
A young girl with an angel's smile
Naked from head to toe.

This young and naked beauty
Was now bathing in the lake.
My brothers kept on calling me
'come now! For goodness sake!'

'Go ahead, my bretheren'
I cried out in return.
'I must go straight down to the lake,
There's something I must learn!'

I took off all my clothes and
Made my way down to the lake,
But as I got much closer
my poor legs began to shake.

The angel in the water
had already spotted me.
She swam around and giggled
And then beckoned silently.

I waded through the water
And then reached the teen-aged girl
'About my age,' I pondered,
'with the beauty of a pearl.'

She pressed against my body,
And then gave me a sweet kiss.
The one that I will not forget.
The one that I will miss.

I married my young angel
In the church next to the hill.
The sun was setting on the lake,
As summer sunsets will.

I took her to the lake
And we made love under the trees,
She always made me happy
With such radiating ease.

We spent our lives together,
Through the worst and through the best.
We raised our children strongly
Full of life and full of zest.

They grew up independent
And found love like her and me.
They boarded that old Mayflower
And sailed through stormy sea.

We heard that they had disappeared
On landing at some place.
And yet I saw that angel's smile
Still fixed upon her face.

Her tears came out and yet she smiled
Determined not to cry.
I fought my own feelings back.
No tears fell from my eyes.

She lived another painful year,
And left me in her sleep.
I think not of her angel's smile;
It makes me hurt too deep.