I Would Give

          I would give the world to see your face,
          To feel your arms, a warm embrace.
          Yet fate has bound me in its chain,
          Ordained to walk the path of pain.


          I would give all to just be free,
          From fate's cold grip, eternity.
          To taste a life unshaped by ties,
          To breathe, to dance beneath wide skies.


          You knew my soul, you knew my name,
          Yet left me standing in the rain.
          I wait in silence, lost in time,
          A love so real, yet never mine.


          For always, there was someone new,
          A choice unmade, a heart untrue.
          And I, too proud to beg or plead,
          Stepped back to see if you would lead.


          But never once did you take flight,
          Never once did you stand to fight.
          Had you but reached, had you but tried,
          I would have stayed there by your side.


          And when the end drew near at last,
          You turned away, you let me pass.
          So quick, so cold, I saw it then--
          Your love was not the love of men.


          Oh, how it hurt, a hollow ache,
          To know my worth was yours to make.
          Yet now, my path is set, my way,
          And none have fought for me to stay.


          You were a dream, so bright, so rare,
          A fleeting touch, a whispered prayer.
          Yet still, my love remains the same,
          A candle burning in your name.


          So should I sit in years to come,
          Upon a porch, with aged rum,
          Know this--my love was ever true,
          A song forever sung for you.