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Mary,
Beautiful Mary
With eyes that smiled
And long, dark hair,
Dancing on the ice of the frozen mill pond,
The blades of her boots carving paths in the cold water.
She smiled and laughed
And coaxed me out with her.
She laughed with me when I fell
Held my hand to steady me,
But I just watched her.
She glided, pirouetted and span
As one with the song of the ice
And I smiled.

But the ice beast awoke
And stirred
And I watched Mary go down.
I saw her fall through the cold calm.
I shouted-
But it was too late.

And Mary
With the smiling eyes and the long dark hair
Lies beneath the water now
Her hair a halo
For an angel
Her laugh silenced forever.

I am old now
As withered as an oak,
And Mary is a long- ago memory.
But every time I hear a jay
Mary laughes in my heart.