TO MY GUIDE

TO MY GUIDE

You're the best friend I've ever had,
Yet the form of our relationship
Affords you the opportunity --
No -- charges you with responsility
For hurting me in ways
And to such depths
That I have never known,
Nor dreamt I could survive.

Chained naked to the pillory,
Stripped not by your questions,
But by the answers I must give,
I am exposed for all to see
Save those who in charity
Turn their heads from looking.
And I do not feel your friend.
Though our bargain has been sealed
By my choice -- not through force,
But by my contract freely given.

I have slipped my hand in yours
And begged you lead the way,
Knowing that the path to come
Would cause me to tremble
And to try to turn away.
Still I follow. But, oh, the truths;
The truths you touch, they hurt,
And sometimes I cannot bear the pain.

Yet still I beg you to guide me.
I ask you still to show the way.
Hold my hand and stand beside me
Until the dawn of my new day.

reprinted from JOURNEY FROM DARKNESS, Candace E. Barnes, from the second section