To My Rochelle

(Commissioned 11/4/91)

Once, my life was a Heaven on Earth

And I was complete, with love filling all

The empty chinks and the dark, murky void

That used to be all in my soul.

Your dulcet voice once spoke to me love,

And love to you I returned,

All that I did, I did for you,

But now, I feel I've been spurned.

The Tempter is jealous of the love that I feel,

And fills up my head with doubts--

He tries to tell me your love isn't real,

That your falseness has been found out.

The Evil One puts these thoughts in my head

It's the Evil One, I know--

Yet doubt is persistent, and stays with me still,

But it's a lie, I know, I know!

I haven't heard from you in ages, it seems,

And when you're gone, my life is like Hell:

I'm kept awake by the torment of dreams

In which I have no lovely Rochelle.

Why are you gone, no word, no call?

As the liar says, is it--

Because you don't really love me at all

That you never write, and never visit?

With no word from you the liar has

Fertile ground in me for doubt.

But a single word or note from you

Would clean my mistrust out.

I'm a ruin without you, empty, lost,

I need to hear your lilt again.

With out you my mind is all chaos:

My heart is filled up with pain.

So please, my love, tell me your heart,

Can it ever be Heaven on Earth again?

Can our love keep us, though we're apart?

Will I see you--Tell me, when?

I await your word, my Dear, my Sweet,

So I can live in Love again,

I would feel whole again, complete

With you in my arms--But when, Dear, when?