Something Found

Oil on linen, 16x20

A Spanish lady, beauty so,
About her throat a cameo,
One sunny day the fairground went
A-looking for her beau.

Her treasure bound she in a sack
She’d sewn to hold all she could pack:
Her jewels and money, every cent,
So she could bring him back.

She thought she spied him over there,
His towering form and golden hair,
Yonder near the merchant’s tent,
Her lover oh so fair.

Her heart did throb, her breath abate;
She prayed that it was not too late.
Of everything she did repent;
Beloved, oh please wait.

But as she neared, it was not he
Her heart believed the man to be.
And now her fears and passions rent,
Her purse she could not see!

Retracing steps across the ground,
Her heart now raced and leapt and bound;
Could all be lost with nothing spent?
Ah praise! T’was lost, now found!

    — poem by Kim Carlton