THE DARK LADY

She was a dark lady who came to me

As I sifted through the calm of night.

With hair unending and lips so tempting,

She looked worth a dozen fights.

She looked so beautiful and yet so forlorn;

Her chin was gentle but her eyes restless.

She was barefoot, and spring followed her:

But the dark lady was a damsel in distress.

She spoke words in a strange tongue

That I knew not yet I understood

Because her eyes spoke more than her words

And rooted me to where I stood.

She came to me with a grin so sly

And asked what I was doing around.

I said I was just enjoying the silence,

“But you, I’ve never seen you in town.”

She looked away with eyes glistening

And I realized they were full of tears.

Suddenly I felt very sad for this stranger

As though I’d known her since many years.

She was the dark lady who came to me;

She was like a lantern in the dark.

She was like a moon on the land,

And on me she left a deep mark.

She disappeared into the night so quickly

That I wondered if it all had been a dream:

Had she but been a vision?

The dark lady – radiant, sad and lean.

She came out of the wilderness

And flashed so cunning a smile.

She was like an angel lost

And I haven’t seen her in a while.