Vows
Vows
By: Halifax
the dividends
I do things for us I won’t do for myself
Things I would never do for my benefit
There are things I do when asked directly
tasks are not for us but for you alone
There are duties I take without question
For one another burdens can be enjoyed
Even if sometimes it’s from what follows
There are things we do that mean so much
Not much to you and I but what we think
the other one needs but cannot put to words
These are sacrifices made to a shared life
small acts of surrender create appreciation
selflessness like this lends consequences
taken on without either registering costs
as if to measure it’s worth diminishes it
It’s best we not dwell on expenses too much
What I have given up cannot compare to you
You don’t want my compromises to be insincere
and I don’t want your concessions to cost me
But it’s more than that
when you fight for me
and I fight for you
against selfish interests
What I collect in dividends
comes as the fallout
of pitilessly killing off
my own petty desires
smothering personal grudges
every single night
I grieve their passing
then inherit a world
improved without them
Inspiring. A wonderful personal workout in selflessness and putting the other guy first, which I think we can take as sincere. Even “You don’t want my compromises to be insincere and I don’t want your concessions to cost me” makes selfless sense if one sees the cost as guilt. The epigrams shine forth on the cutting edge of paradox. Each one speaks to the benefit of self-denial, on a personal and universal scale. The italicized end stanzas tell of the anguishing expense of that to self and its gratifying payoff.
Nitty Gritty nuts and bolts of commitment to a relationship and what a man and woman will do out of love–i feel this confessional! So many people just go ‘intuitive’ with their mates and let the experience run a course like a theme park ride. But love takes work. It takes lots of thought. It’s not a case where emotion or feeling is abandoned to reason, but enhanced and complimented by it. It takes balls to speak from the heart and to realize the best way to ‘follow it’ is with a course setting–happy sailing in the seas of Aphrodite. Well done, captain!