Advice

If you wept under a brazen bough
Your eyes would never be dry,
But if you laugh in the wilderness
A bush will spring in your sight,
Will flower with flame for company,
And burden your years with light.

When you have said, there's no more love,
And you've gone out alone to mock,
I've put a candle in your hands
And an altar before your might,
So the steady flame would burn your eyes,
And burden your years with light.

So now when you ask for darkness to come
And fill your eyes with rest,
I'l1 point to the woman over the flame
Who stands between you and the night,
And when you know you never can change,
And your years will be burdened with light.

W. H. Oliver