Love is on the Mountain

There are days like these, my friend
When love seems far away
It comes and goes a fleeting thing
and never seems to stay

I know it is a thing we want
But craving it’s a curse
Then to have would stand the lash
Of pain and even worse

But in these recent times I’ve had
A lesson hard to bear
That love can be a tangled web
A trap, a mental snare

To play the game there are some rules
That both must know and do
That both must be giving all
and what I say is true

Or down the road, it won’t be long
One thing I have no doubt
When one can’t face the things
That’s done, very soon will then want out

In these years I’ve learned some things
About this thing called love
It isn’t what you think it is
A gift from high above

It is a give it is a take
one must invest one’s all
It is a game and if one plays
A risk of stand or fall

One is either effect or cause
A universal rule
To want to be loved is effect
And that makes man a fool

So if you play the game my friend
You play it to the hilt
If you fail the rules to know
You die of your own guilt

But there is a shining truth
There is a glimmering hope
Atop a mountain scaled by the brave
Above that slippery slope

Those two who want it true
will risk the chance to fall
And to earn the prize that we call love
You must help your partner up the stormy wall

LD Sledge