I See You Working Hard for Me

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Hear me read
the poem as
an MP3 file.

Watch me read
the poem as
a YouTube video.

Video Music:
Excidentis Foliae.
By Damiano Baldoni.
Performed by Damiano Baldoni
at the Free Music Archive
under an Attribution
license.

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Copyright by
Nicholas Gordon

I see you working hard for me
And wonder what it means:
Whether I will do the same
And give up my own dreams

To offer someone else my world,
A stranger from my womb,
And say: Here, take my life,
So you, not I, can bloom.

I often wonder at the depth
Of that cool sacrifice;
I know it can't be "just because,"
Or simply to be nice.

It is so awesome, I can't think
How I could make that choice,
Except I see something in you
That gives my own heart voice.

I see sometimes a happiness
Amid the stressed-out day
That no one else can hope to know
In any other way.

I feel it when you look at me
And understand sometimes
That things I do, I do for two,
And then your hard life shines.

And when I give you grief, I know
That all the bitter pain
Between a mom and growing child
Is simply like the rain

That alternates with sunny days,
Passion without end,
While underneath is more of life
Than we can comprehend.

And then I know, perhaps, why I
Like you might be so moved
To give my life to someone else,
And know that I have loved.

Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. Free for personal or non-commercial use.

Video Music: Excidentis Foliae. By Damiano Baldoni. Performed by Damiano Baldoni
at the Free Music Archive under an Attribution license.

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