The merry sort
will go along
and give you what to do
and serve you too
a soothing song
and never marry you
but woo and coo
in true report
You mean so much to me
But love is free
And life is short
O, so convincingly
for which you’ll pray
deliverance
if not a change of heart.
O please don’t start
that old nonsense
you’ll hear, and live apart.
Now five nights cold,
the other two
you let love in to play,
but never stay.
If only you
could go your merry way.
James B. Nicola is the author of six collections of poetry, the latest being Fires of Heaven: Poems of Faith and Sense. His decades of working in the theater culminated in the nonfiction book Playing the Audience: The Practical Guide to Live Performance, which won a Choice award.
