from How Did You Find Me Here?
..............................................

JAMIE'S SECRET

Near river bend where the stream runs clear
One winter morning of a day last year
I heard a secret that I now can say
Concerning Jamie, who's past away

If you had known her then you'd agree
Her smiling eyes could make a blind man see
She laughed with innocence and she moved with style
Full grown lover with childlike smile

She moved out West where the air is clean
To study poetry at Evergreen
I thought I'd see her in a year or two
Till we heard rumors
That I feared were true

They never found where she went that night
The man she lived with said they'd had a fight
She left that cabin to walk alone
He kept the light on
But she never came home

She must have gone by the riverside
The searchers say that's how she must have died
The winter water was cold with snow
An icy boulder
And down she'd go

Well I heard the news but I could not cry
I should be shattered but my eyes were dry
To feel no sorrow was my surprise
But the words came easy
For those last good-byes

Till I took a walk by the riverbend
Where once we lingered when she was my friend
I tried to melt the river of tears inside
The river flowed
But joy I cried

She may be gone from this life we know
She may have frozen in the ice and snow
But there's a secret that my heart can't tell
Except to say
That she's safe and well

Near river bend where the stream runs clear
One winter morning of a day last year
I heard a secret that I now can say
Concerning Jamie, who's passed away

..............................................

© David Wilcox, all rights reserved