For Lizzie

For Lizzie

Your jaded eyes have one more tear

But tears they spoil your beauty

Growing and loving hold only fear

You cry for them but have a duty

To maintain cool at any cost

And even when it's all behind you

You'll never see till you melt the frost

And find the love that's woman's due.

You've seen it all and even more

But what you've seen is just a lie

You haven't learned what life is for

Don't look to me, though...nor have I.

The shortest distance I've been told

Between two points is straight

But days are long and nights are cold

We're turned aside by love, by hate.

Although my mind is yet unclear

Of my own path to reach the goal

I see you there...so far, so near

Between two roads of body and soul.

Don't let yourself be trampled down

By those who choose a lower road

There's more to life than silken gowns

Than one night stands...and there's the goad

An arrow cannot reach the mark

When sent from off a crooked bow

And when a soul is kept in dark

How can it then know how to go?

Lift the mist and walk alone

Leave behind the younger souls

They'll only envy when you're gone

A heart that's found its higher goals.

Love comes hard and only when

You stand the wind against your face

And learn that every soul must bend

To stand erect and find the pace.

The man I love once said to me

That lovers never lose.

And now I know that to be free

Of life and living we must choose

The straightness of the arrow

With point of steel~ shaft of ash

And find the solid~ shun the hollow

Leave the yesterday to find tomorrow.