~ by Patrick W. Kavanagh

Would that I had never seen the sun light up the sky at dawn,

With pink and silver clouds that bode a better day than ever came.

Would that I’d been deaf, unheeding of the chorus of the lark,

To live my life in silence and in dark, and never heard your name.

Bitter is the taste of finest wines, and rank the smell of once sweet flowers on the bough,

Brandy burns my throat in fiery gulps, but still the empty aching will not go.

What foul and spiteful fate had sent you here to cross my path, I’ll never know,

For still your beauty haunts me through my tears – my broken spirit cannot let you go.

I wish I had the hate inside to take this blade and thrust it into you,

To end your evil ways before you take the life of others such as me.

So take this sword and strike me now and let your aim be true,

And pierce this crumbling heart with all your strength and set me free.

What is this wrong that I have done – that you should cast aside this heart so easy won,

Have I loved too little or too much, offended and been too tardy to atone,

Tell me now, before I die what cruel and unforgiven deed that I have done,

And finish me before the rising of the sun – I cannot bear to see another day alone.