I think of you writing this way to me
and think of the gap, the oh-so-wide sea
that keeps us apart, but not really, you know,
It is current commitments that make it so!

Yes, the space that we feel is truly there,
a gap of our making, but made before where
knowing each lived in a complex world
not knowing each other, our pledges we sold...

It takes time to correct this sad affray
and sad is the truth, as we feel this way
but if we ignore the bonds we have made
then our worth is as zero, our love will fade.

As I too lie awake and think all these thoughts
and share your concern as we struggled and fought
the idea we must wait - oh I long for you now!
But wait is a must, we must do it, somehow!

If time is our master we chafe at its chains -
but we must take charge, and gather time's reins
so that when we are ready - and ready we'll be
we will steer to each other, and then we'll be free!

The trick is the timing, the sense of the pace,
in knowing the moment when change can take place
without breaking vows, without being untrue
yet knowing the time has become right and true.

If love is to meet us and keep us and be
our commitment to each, and to each we are free
to say as we must and we wish each to be
then I say to you, and you say to me -

I love you my darling, and I'll wait 'til I see
the day which is ours, no more conflicts to be
eating away at the conscience I feel
free to be yours - at your feet I kneel

Pledging to you all of myself I do give
to you and your wishes as long as I live
and beyond! How I long for your arms to so be
surrounding me, keeping me, eternally!

How do I love thee? I can say no more
than these humble words I have offered, amour,
It is selfless and open and yours without cost
this love which I give you, simple, unglossed.

I share your desire to rise and to be
side by side with each other for eternity
and like you I can wait as I know we must
for the day when we both stand free and untrussed.

Like you I can handle the pains of this day
while I wait for the time when its right to say
I have filled all my promises - I stand here free
to come and join you, if you are ready for me

Because if I assume that you'll be there for me
and life for you alters and you are not free
then how open am I to the winds of dire fate
that blow softly, yet always, and early or late

still they blow, and they twist all plans that are laid
and to count on a future of goals we have made
presumes a consistency on scales we have weighed
when the truth is that future is shimmering, shade...

I love you, my dear, and will do my best
to honor the love that swells in my breast
and to honor all life, as life honors me
in keeping my pledges, so we may be free!

© John B. Moss
  13 October 1998