Beast of Burden

Can’t beg somebody

To love you anymore

It’s not dignified

That’s what I find so sad

That all these people

Are walking around
With dignity

But no love

Sometimes it costs

A little begging

Nothing wrong with that

I’ve begged lots of people

To love me

Not just on my knees

But on my head

On my back

Any way that worked

Until they said--

‘Get up, you idiot, I love you too’

Then I was all set

One poor heart

I begged for years

Before they loved me back

There’s that day or two

When the begging’s over

And it’s nothing but love

And not just love

But new love

And that’s my favorite time

After that you fall back on

Trying to see

How it is

You’re supposed to love each other

And that’s not always easy

To get around to

I would lay in bed with someone

Feeling the love I had

But knowing it couldn’t get

To the love

The other person

Had for me

No matter how tight

I pulled them to me

And no matter how many nights

We slept side-by-side

The two things stayed two things

And they never found each other

In a way deeper

Than two people
With two lousy bodies could

I begged for everything

In my life

Never saw the point

In pretending you didn’t want something

And then

If you wanted it

Why act like you don’t want it

More than anything?

Why not put all your heart

Into getting it?

But the passion you call up

To win what it is

You’re trying to win--

Be it love

Or admiration

Or something

--When that passion dies out

There you are

Holding the prize

And you think…

I should beg this off

I should beg somebody

To take this love

Off my hands

When something is so

Despicable and undignified

To so many people

Something like begging

Then

When someone like you

Like me

When we get used to doing it

It makes not doing it

Seem like--

Well, why wouldn’t I?

Why wouldn’t I keep doing it?

Because I don’t have to anymore?

Because I got what I wanted?

What the hell does that have to do with it?

I’m not good at anything else

I’m not good at holding something

I’m just good at standing here

With my hands out

Begging somebody

To put somethin’ in ‘em

So I can feel the weight

Of something warm

Do you believe me

When I tell you all this?

It’s hard, I know

It’s hard to believe somebody

Like me