When Love Is an Affliction

Music: Fugue in B Minor for Organ. By J. S. Bach. Sequenced by Jim Michmerhuizen.

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When love is an affliction, There's not much one can do. Despite the way you've treated me, I'm still in love with you. I am the wave and you the rock Against which I must break: Again, again the crushing jolt, The pain I can't forsake; Again, again the long retreat To safety, far from shore, And then again, I don't know why, The long trip back for more. Perhaps it is nostalgia for A long uncertain glow, Or just some hope so beautiful I cannot let it go. Perhaps it is the need to try For those who must depend On who we are and what we do, For whom this should not end. What evil makes you hurt me so, What defect of the heart? What sense there is no greater whole Of which you are a part? What lonely choice that only you Be served by what you choose? What hard, hard fear of losing what It is a gift to lose? I dream sometimes my waiting love Has made you turn again. But you care only for yourself, And I must love in vain.