The things you wanted for me are things I’ll never have:
a wife, a child, honor and wealth, for all the world to praise.
I cannot live the life you’d wish, nor qualify my love.
My work will never make me rich. I cannot live
the silent lie too long and I will not change my ways.
The things you wanted for me are things I’ll never have.
Honor will not fall to me. What good name I have
will be undone by angry men who cannot bear my face.
I cannot live the life you’d wish, nor qualify my love.
Perhaps the thing you wanted most, of all I cannot give:
you will not see your faces shine from another grandchild’s face.
The things you wanted for me are things I’ll never have.
No woman shares my life. Instead, I love a man, who gives
laughter to my darkest nights and meaning to my days.
I cannot live the life you’d wish, nor qualify my love.
But as I grew, I watched your love, and each day that we live,
I see a love like that you have, reflected in his gaze.
The things you wanted for me are things I’ll never have.
I cannot live the life you’d wish, nor qualify my love.
David Milley
