What if I were to tell you,
You broke my heart today?
What if I were to tell you,
I cannot live this way?

Would you make a different choice?
Would I be the one?
Or would things still be the same
Never to be undone?

I love you too much to let you go
But it’s tearing me apart.
Not able to love you freely
Wounds this lover’s heart.

So end it now, my one true love.
Take your life from mine.
For to have you near but oh so far
Is torture of the cruelest kind.

I say that now; to end it all.
But we both know the truth.
I cannot walk away from you.
I know you love us both.

So I’ll keep this all locked deep inside
And suffer silently.
For if I were to let you go
It would be the end of me.

I close my eyes and I see you stand before me.
I know your height, your slender shape and stance.
I see your tousled crown; your bright eyes captivate me.
I would know you anywhere at just a glance.

I listen and I hear your soft voice call me.
I hear the love and tenderness abound.
Your purity and clear tone pierce right through me.
There is no sweeter, no more desired sound.

The scent that is only you surrounds me.
A powerful memory to trigger thoughts of yesterdays.
The same of taste, your salty tears upon me.
They filter in and linger in the haze.

The one sensation that locks its secret from me
Is your touch, the feel of your soft and gentle skin.
But what of the caress my memory hides from me?
Perhaps that is when the unraveling will begin.

Brave souls set out from the world that they knew,
A dangerous trip with death for more than a few.
Enduring hardship as they travelled the sea
Seeking their fortune and a better life there to be.
Single adventurers, families , all ages and types,
Possessions all stowed, they come risking their lives.
Decisions to sail were as varied as men,
Moving onto the now and leaving the then.
Not knowing before them what would unfold,
Stories and legends of many were told.
Some coming with love and wanting to teach
Of God and religion seeing heathens to reach.
Others not so, more evil of heart,
Finding men and their money so easy to part.
Fleeing the gallows of home they did run
Making a life with violence and gun.
Heroes were few but ******* abound
As they eked out a living and laid claim to their ground.
Pioneers and the lawless, fortune seekers and cads
The harlots, the clergy, all lasses and lads.
They came and they stayed. My country did grow.
Canada was born. And with pride now I glow.