1979-10-15

The Buddha sings in my ear
and I smile at purposes I can respect
and enjoy.
What can I offer Rose of this, my life?
That she could accompany music she cannot hear?
And wait on challenges she could never anticipate
for the sake of the love of someone
who loves with only half his heart?

I would say to her, “Love me, but ask nothing of me.”
Share my time, the eating of my bread,
the aging of my wine, the passing of my years.
But leave me my inner smiles, my dreams.
That I hear my own music, however out of step
it may be to anyone else’s.

I am willing to give a lifetime commitment to love
if it asks nothing of me but what I would give.
That the changing aspects of my attention should not
be mistaken for the lessening of my regard, I would hope.

gallagher
15 Oct 1979

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

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