You Cannot Now but Be Afraid

Music: Lovely Molly
Sequenced by
Barry Taylor
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Copyright by
Nicholas Gordon

You cannot now but be afraid
Of all that you might lose,
And curse the granite circumstance
That forces you to choose.

You are too young, a child yourself,
As I am, too, and yet
There is a child between us, whom
We cannot just forget.

This child - our child - has no one else
To be its only father.
Others may be guardians,
But you can be no other.

This fact will not relent, though battered
Hard by bitter tears.
Time moves only forward as
Our yearnings turn to years.

And everything we've wanted turns
To what we must accept,
And what we'd least relinquish comes
From what we most regret.

I do not ask to live with you
Or ever be your wife;
Only that you share the gift
And burden of a life

That waits upon your willing love
To greet its upturned face
That it might twist your heart with joy
And unimagined grace.

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