HELENA: WOMAN CHILD

                                                 
                                                      For Helena Afonso

Tender as a babe’s cheeks upon soft, summer flowers,
Helena, is a child in the beautiness of love,
Soft as the summer’s dew and delicate as silky spring showers,
The loneliness of her is like a young dove,
Spreading its wings in the tenderness of sky,
A child that gives a smile that is soothing to the heart,
Bringing a ray of beauty and a gentle cry,
Helena, a delicate child of love and art,
A child, so lovely, though a woman too,
Like a dove in the soft, summer’s wind,
That touches the inner-most cords of silky dew,
Helena, a soft child of tender flowers and of gentle loving.

Theodore Arthur Pinnock
July 24,1980