By the Still Water's Edge

I gazed down from the water's side    
To see a silver gleam  
And standing staring looked and tried    
To see beyond the stream.    
The clearest water sparkling, pure,    
Below me stilled and calm;    
Its cooling, soothing, fooling lure,    
Seductive in its charm.    
    
I saw a young man peering on    
With eyes that conquered all.    
But in a moment, he was gone ~    
Uncanny, I recall.    
Beneath the surface he was there,    
A soul of twenty-four,    
Then vanished in the swell somewhere    
And left me by the shore.    
   
Again, he came when it was staid    
And braved another glance.    
Yet, had I his acquaintance made    
Some long by-go, by chance?    
He spoke and told me in a rhyme    
He yearned that he was me;    
Though musing swept me back in time ~    
I longed that I was he.    
   
                                                         ASJ