HUMBLED IN LOVE

Do you remember the pledges

That we pledged in the passionate night

They're soiled now and torn at the edges

Like moths on a stale yellow light

Nor penance serves to renew them,

Nor massive transfusions of trust

Not even revenge can undo them

So twisted these vows and so crushed

And you say you've been humbled in love,

Cut down in your love

Forced to kneel in the mud

Next to me

Ah but why so bitterly

Turn from the one

who kneels there

As deeply as thee

Cliildren have taken these pledges

They have ferried them out of the past

Oh beyond all the graves and the hedges

Where love must go hiding at last

And here where there is no description

Here in the moment at hand

No sinner need rise up forgiven

No victim need 1imp to the stand

And look, dear heart, at the virgin

Look how she welcomes him into her gown

And mark how the stranger's cold armor

Dissolves like a star falling down

Why trade this vision for desire

When you may have them both

You will never see a man this naked

I will never hold a woman this close