When I was ten I really cant remember when
There was a time that I liked Girls the less
To me they were a mess back then
Of tittle tattle giggles silly school girl wiggles
And Jump skip rope nursery rhymes
At that time my world was bounded
By half eaten apples bird nesting grapples up trees
Pocket pieces of string and a bone handled penknife
Such was my life when girls were made to have frogs
Dropped mischievously down their frocks
And wore white ankle socks

When I was but a girl in a simple safe world
My days were made of mud pies and my friends
And boys back then where just a whirl
To be wrestled and tasseled cowboys to be lassoed
While I rode upon my Schwinn stead
Juice and seeds of watermelons
Running down my belly, mom's canned jelly delight
Fireflies at night caught in glass jars
Lights in the dark
Sweetest moments, my laughing lark

Between my early teens and pubities dreams
There came a subtle change in my ideas about girls
Though it was a gradual awareness a dull sort of numbness 
They were still an encumbrance just wishing
That I would take them fishing and other things
In short not to be pedantic and certainly not romantic
They seemed rather too soft for a toughie like me
Besides they smelled of perfume that filled the room
Called Youth Dew and wouldn't you know 
Delightful bumps where starting to show
As some girls do at that age 
Certainly not a fashion rage 
Just an enchanting sign of growing up. 

While I grew to thirteen, the boys sure changed it seemed
I, though growing in a womanly way,
Wanted to stay lost in daydreams
Of Ferris wheels, toy pin-mills, and sweet summertime thrills
An innocent age of childhood
But time would change my desires
I often took a chance, a quick nervous glance at boys
They were a joy to be observed
Ploy became plan
As I grew to be a woman

And Seventeen  was a time when I could not scheme
To win a maidens hand and a red headed beauty
Spoiled all my plans for a simple life without stress
And I became bewitched by everything about her
broke the Golden rule even carried her books to school
In some vain hope she would enliken me to her heart
And at the start she even did but when I failed
To bid her for a date just like the latent kaw Liga
I tried too late to win her hand and my planned
Wooing of her became lost to the smooth haired
Grammar school Lothario called Stuart I damn well knew it
Besides he drove daddy's sports car and I had a Raleigh bike

Greg Geswein was a dream, a senior,  seventeen
A portrait sketched by me as I watched him
Smile in the gym for assembly
Other lasses made passes at him in their classes
But, Prom, he asked me for a date
T'was too late and I went with Paul
The disastrous dance led to no romance just tears
And certain fears of rejection
Peers were ruthless
And the portrait now, just useless.

Now that I am 65 I haven't felt more alive than I do now 
And I just know some how it has to do with her 
That beauty I found so rare on distant shores
So radiant she glows  in foreign climes 
There is no need for me to know why 
But my heart pounds and pulses race 
Whenever she is near 
She is the  woman I hold so dear 
The girl within my heart 
An intrinsic part of my life 
And though these miles separate us 
I  soon will fly into her arms

Here I am, fifty-four, loving like ne'er before
Feeling like a fairytale princess blessed
I must confess this enchantment
Has me yearning and burning all of it concerning
My desires for this special knight
For he's light in my once dark world
His gentle heart, tender, leaves me rendered to his charms
Safe from all harm there in his strong
Arms around me
Dwelling in love eternally