Humbled in Love

Do you remember all of those pledges

That we pledged in the passionate night

Ah, they're soiled now, they're torn at the edges

Like moths on a still yellow light

No penance serves to renew them

No massive transfusions of trust

Why not even revenge can undo them

So twisted these vows and so crushed

And you say you've been humbled in love

Cut down in your love

Forced to kneel in the mud next to me

Ah but why so bitterly turn from the one

Who kneels there as deeply as thee

Children have taken these pledges

They have ferried them out of the past

Oh beyond all the graves and the hedges

Where love must go hiding at last

And here where there is no description

Oh here in the moment at hand

No sinner need rise up forgiven

No victim need limp to the stand

And you say you've been humbled in love

Cut down in your love

Forced to kneel in the mud next to me

Ah but why so bitterly turn from the one

Who kneels there as deeply as thee

And look dear heart, look at the virgin

Look how she welcomes him into her gown

Yes, and mark how the stranger's cold armour

Dissolves like a star falling down

Why trade this vision for desire

When you may have them both

You will never see a man this naked

I will never hold a woman this close

And you say you've been humbled in love

Cut down in your love

Forced to kneel in the mud next to me

Ah but why so bitterly turn from the one

Who kneels there as deeply as thee