<Judy Collins> page <Bread & Roses (LP)> album page |
Take This LongingMany men have loved the bellsYou fastened to the rein And everyone who wanted you They found what they will always want again Your beauty lost to you yourself Just as it was lost to them Oh, take this longing from my heart Oh, the useless things these hands have done And let me see your beauty broken down As you do for one you love Your body like a searchlight My own poverty reveals How I would love to try your charity Until you cry, "Now you must try my greed" And everything depends upon How near you sleep to me Oh, take this longing from my heart Oh, the useless things these hands have done Let me see your beauty broken down As you do for one you love As hungry as an archway Through which the troops have passed I stand in ruins behind you With your winter clothes and your broken sandal straps I love to see you naked over there Especially from the back Take this longing from my heart All the lonely things these hands have done Untie my blue silk gown As you do for one you love You're faithful to my better self I'm afraid she left Let me judge your love affair In this very room where you've sentenced Mine to death Look, I'll even wear these old laurel leaves That you've shaken from your head Oh, take this longing from my tongue All the useless lonely things these hands have done Let me see your beauty broken down As you would do for one you love As you would do for one you love |