Sad-eyed Lady

You look at me with sad brown eyes,
pain lingers in your smile.
I see a hurt that hunts you down –
let’s sit and talk a while

of things that we can’t dream of now,
of what is yet to come,
of wistful vain impossibles
and all our loves undone.

You tell me all that’s gone before,
yet you don’t need to go
through all of those dark empty nights,
for I already know

from what your eyes reflect to me
a hollow deep within,
a melancholy memory
of death as black as sin

You look at me with sad brown eyes.
What have we got to gain
except a broken future life
of grief and growing pain?

So turn your eyes away from me
and save ourselves the time
it takes to reach the point at which
what’s yours is also mine.

We’re lost in conversation now
about God knows what all –
creation and the universe –
we’re heading for the fall.

Look at me with your sad brown eyes –
I won’t ask you to choose
a road to certain disaster where
there’s nothing left to lose.