Smile, Sweetly (a strain you've heard before)

♦ Sadie Barandes ♦

I don’t know your gentle touch

Your wheedling words, your warm embrace

Nor do I know your lustful eyes

Those orbs of umber, so divine

But I know how you smile, sweetly

Softly, gently, so serenely

Morning doves will soar and sing

You know they sing for only you

Your smile, sweetly, brusquely breaks me

Frees me like an angel, fallen

Fallen down to your front door

Singing strains you’ve heard before

I don’t know those ghostly doves

Who live to see you smile, sweetly

Nor do I know your keen omniscience

How you foster such fluorescence

But soon, I’m sure, I’ll join your doves

So stay—please stay—so I can sing

A simple strain at your front door

A strain I know you’ve heard before