Ervie C.Jones Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Beauty Night, dark glorious night, now history proffering way to light Casts the morning sun through garden roses of delight Where reflected rays stream from your hair Like burnished gold falling in the morning air Each note of laughter reverberates Round the garden wall, awakens sleeping Blue Jays And echoes against a miniature waterfall As the morning day awaken from nightly splendor So your resplendent beauty awakens my rapturous heart Shakes my being and frustrates my senses like the Gordian Knot Unlike the vanquished robes of a Dowager Queen Your beauty is riotously radiant and serene Awash with happiness as a golden dream Without ostentation of priggish conceit Your beauty lends life a flower complete Devoid of subtlety and false charm Love only can protect you from harm.

An Ode to Death I waited the winter, long and cold and you never came. I waited with spring along with its flowers to bring---you never came. I waited all summer long, hot and dry it was --you never came. I waited through fall, its dead scattered leaves and all --you never came. Now it is winter again, cold damp and dreary, still you have not come. Must I linger still, and wait yet longer? Still you may not come. Hope they say is eternal, yet have I not died?

MY GARDEN QUEEN I met you in the garden, it was nearly dusk Must I kiss those ruby lips I thought I must So I put my arms around you, and you laughed and sighed Crying, don't ever leave me for without your love I would die We were seventeen then, life was so lovely and full of dreams Now a century has passed since meeting in the garden it seems I can only wonder now, and my mind does implore Do you ever think of your night in the garden anymore Am I a forgotten stranger that you cannot seem to recall Or do you still remember you vows of love by that garden well Have you ever regretted your words of love then spoken Or is your tender heart, like mine, still broken O would that some time machine could now erase those years between And that I could meet again with my garden queen Could I but hear once more, her love declared as token Those endearing words spoken a young boys heart unbroken But I have found that life in all its glory has a timeless face And not one minute of love or labor will it ever erase So a love at seventeen is a treasure so bright and bold Time only separated heartaches, love never grows old Now as I sit before my warm winter fireside Dreamily pondering of how my youth was spent I think ever of you in the highest esteem For you see, you are my seventeen Garden Queen

All poems Copyright © 1997 Ervie C. Jones. All rights reserved.