Date:         Sat, 17 Jan 1998 13:51:29 -0500
From: Words from the Monastery <jackechs@EROLS.COM>
Subject:      SUB: VDC: Two Hearts Too Young (poem)

The 1998 WRITERs' Valentine's Day Contest

Remember, save your critiques please and send you entries to Michelle
<winebird@inreach.com> and me <jackechs@erols.com> not the list for entry
into the contest.

*****

Two Hearts Too Young

In a book once, I pressed
a yellow rose; you'd given 
it to me after we kissed 
goodnight in the garden.

Years later I find it there.
Dry, flat, golden  but  yellow;
still fragrant between the
sheets of waxed tissue.

This rose cannot be cliche.
Why else has it survived 
the press of  time, 
while we did not.

We grew up and apart.
Two hearts too young
to grieve separation
beyond a few torn hours.

And now with the yellow
rose to remind me 
of our  young love,
my memories flower.