I ask for nothing yet you give me all I need

Could this be what the sages meant when they spoke of love

Perhaps like the roses thorny prick doth bleed

Nary tainting the snow white of the purest dove

.

Were I ever to beg my darling, of you my pardon

I doubt you not that forgiveness would be mine

Assured that your heart would not surely harden

This–I take to my heart as a sign

.

The gift you offer out of nothing but passion

I hold close, clutching it tightly to my still heaving breast

Through these long centuries it has never left fashion

On my knees before God to you my love I confessed

.

All this–I pray that I have not taken for granted

For your love I cherish that may ne’er be supplanted

.

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~