Back story: In 1967, two army buddies and I went to Disneyland, in Anaheim, California. While walking past one of the buildings, I saw a girl, who smiled at me as I passed. I got a photo of that face. Looked at it from time to time over the years, and wondered who she was and whatever happened to her. This poem is that memory and the subsequent wondering.
One Girl's Face
Fifty years ago I passed, and,
Tried to read in one girl's face,
Two stories; hers and mine.
Mine was fantasy with her as the heroine.
Was I in hers? I doubt she ever saw me.
I have no knowledge of her story,
But, I could sense shadows of dreams
Behind her eyes, which stared out
Towards a place, where surely,
Something wonderful was happening.
Did she long to go there,
In that fantastic world?
Did someone ride to save her,
From the boredom of daily drudgery?
In her story, was her simple dress
Transformed Into a gown most beautiful?
Was her soft dark hair topped,
With a bejeweled tiara?
There are, as I was told, a million
Faces I might see, and each a story,
I will never be allowed to read.
So, what I read in one girl's face,
Was, and must remain a romantic mystery.
Perhaps some day, that girl herself,
Now as old as I, may tell in her own words,
The story that her eyes beheld that day
That only they could see, and she could read,
The story told beyond, or perhaps behind,
That one girl's face, fifty years ago.
Donovan Baldwin
Interesting story-poem... Happy New Year.