A Perfect Smile Poem by Denis Martindale

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How may a poem prove enough to win a maiden's heart,
Beyond proclaiming one man's love, that soon may yet depart?
It lives within him day and night, but how long will that last
Before it melts and fades from sight, and then lives in the past?
Yet when I see her smile again, I fall in love anew,
And imitate all smitten men because such lovers do.
And God knows, too, my hopes and dreams, the sighs I often make,
The foolishness of best-laid schemes that fail through one mistake.
The girl who waves each time we meet, the girl I long to see,
The girl whose smile is oh so sweet, is she the girl for me?
So here I am, confessing all, perplexed in every way,
While she stays as the miracle now prayed for night and day.
Men fall in love as easily as any Romeo,
Yet she is worth the world to me, and that is all I know.


Denis Martindale. June 2021.