Ballad

Ballad"The Secret Letter"by Elizabeth Santos from Pottstown, PAe-mail: escheffey@aol.com


Among the cobwebbed attic treasures Memories of yester year Books and pictures, notes well weathered Some brought laughter, some brought tears She rummaged through the souvenirs For hours and hours in reminisce Childhood friends and high school proms Her first real date, her first real kiss Then she stumbled on a box Of keepsakes from her mother's dayLittle secret well-kept treasures Opened now to light of day She read the letters from her father Words of love that brought her tears She walked back through her mother's youth Recapturing the long lost years One more letter left unopened At the bottom of the box She sat and stared at it in wonder Brushing back her golden locks Dare she read the secret letter From her mother's unknown youth This box of treasures kindly quenching Thirst for knowledge of the truth She tore the envelope wide open Pulled the letter from inside And in the musty attic air She read it slowly as she cried It was a letter full of love Not written in her father's hand Addressed "Dear Rosebud" at the top A letter from another man It told of his undying love And promised her that he would be Beside her always in this life And ever through eternity The letter was unsigned of course And barely finished in its haste The ink was stained with tear drops Of a love that now had gone to waste She'd had a vision of her mother Only seen in photographs And always looking like an angel Full of love and joyful laughs And now the vision had been shattered Now the truth had been exposed A letter to a "Rosebud"And her mother was the lovely rose She took the letter to her fatherAnd through her tears revealed the truth Her mother had another love The mother that she never knew Her father tearfully then nodded Trembling as he read the page He said sometimes the written word Reveals the truth from age to age He held her tight and said these words This secret I already knewThis letter's in your mother's hand The "Rosebud", darling, it was you.


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