Just five and thirty years ago I walked alone on earth
That callous carefree creature
A bachelor from birth
No thrill of premonition no tingling of the spine
foreshadowed the appearance of my only valentine
I had no thought of courtship
at that far distant date, one girl was like another
so why then concentrate.
One pearl was like another to this self-centered swine
who was surfeited with sameness and knew no valentine.
Just five and thirty years ago I danced with mind astray
and suddenly that sameness was forever swept away.
I hardly heard the music, I couldn't taste the wine
for lovely as a legend I saw my valentine.
Oh lovely as a legend or a silver birch in spring
and haunting as the twilight song
that hidden thrushes sing.
How I elbowed through the dancers
as they stood in penguin line
How I dodged among the dancers as I sought my valentine .
The orchestra played waltzes, blank faces swirled about
I had no foot for waltzes, so we sat the waltzes out.
Came the tunes of Kern and Gershwin,
but I liked the terrace fine.
Till the band played, Auld Lang Syne
I wooed my valentine.
Just five and thirty years ago I walked the earth alone
the shortest five and thirty years
that earth has ever known.
When tonight she is beside me
My fairest valentine, my rarest valentine,
Through five and thirty precious years
My own true valentine.
"To my Valentine" ~ Ogden Nash
(From Readers Digest - 1960s)
quoted by Jenny Ko Gyi (Myanmar - Burma)
