Love’s Beggar (revised to include Intoxicated)
You intoxicate me, with effervescent verse and beguiling charm
Your honeyed nectar is all I need to upset my equilibrium
Leaving me unsteady on my feet
Panhandling for your love’s small change
Grateful for each thinworn dime
And if I have to use the tin cup of the sightless
It’s only because I was blinded by the radiance
Of your soul’s delightfulness
I tap my way to the town square, sightless
White cane in hand, searching
Finally, a granite curb curls around the wishing well
Where I unbundle my light burden
Collect my tin cup and its measly treasures
One by one I cast each thinworn dime and stinted penny
Over the edge with an unspoken wish
Staying silent in a sacred exchange of spells and coin
Needing all the magic I can find in this sightless blackness
I cast my wishes, hopes and dreams into the void
Sight unseen
And when the cup is emptied out
I stand for hours casting wishes
Without the silvered price of hope’s admission
And as the wishes fall beneath still waters deep
I turn away and begin another lonely walk
To where I’ll camp outside your door
My cup proffered for your rewards
Hoping that this is the day you’ll invite me in
To share your warmth and ease my pain
And with your gentle touch, cure this blindness
To let me see your sweet face again
David Trudel © 2012