OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

Today I stood alone and watched you go
Across the stage and then glide down the aisle.
A shining jewel received a golden cup.
You smiled. I tried. But in the end, I cried.
Dear child, you’ll never know how much I love
Or how I grieve that we are so apart.
I wish that I could make the years turn back.
Sweet flower, lustrous pearl, seed of my own womb,
That long ago, I sadly left behind.
It matters not what reasons prompted me
To reach into my aching heart
To tear away that tender, fragile link with you,
to place you in the care of other hands.
It matters not the many tears I shed
Whenever I would hear of your distress
Or when I, lonely, wept and longed to comfort,
shelter, hold you in my empty arms.
Oh ! Sad ! I had no home to offer you.
It matters not the better life you had
that I, myself could not provide.
What matters now is only that I care
and need a way to let you know…
If only I could dare.
Long nights have passed
and darling, you are grown.
Now you have pretty babies of your own.
And here I am, a stranger full of pain
that I have carried many years.
I pray that you will never feel the same.
Today I stood alone and watched you go.
You smiled. I tried. But in the end, I cried.