The smiling girl on glossy yearbook page,
No griefs or sorrows in her face revealed,
No tragedies or heartaches there concealed,
Forever lives oblivious to age.
Yet life has taken from this smiling stage
The girl whose youthful beauty lies congealed
In that one portrait where her life is sealed,
Where time inexorable cannot rage.
And yet, although she stays forever young,
Never to know the sadness of the old
Never to tremble with the fear of night,
Her life will always be a song unsung
Upon that paper, ageless but so cold,
And she can never truly see the light.

1957