IF ONLY
                                                (for Missy)
 
If only the movie were as good as the book,
And people weren't judged by the way that they looked
Or spoke, or dressed, or the way that they laughed,
If only this planet were spacious enough...

A twelve-year old boy killed a six-year old girl,
With violent blows he ended her world,
And somebody spoke: "If only...
If only we weren't so lonely..."

If only we knew how to love and to give,
To renounce our pride, if we learned to forgive,
If just for a moment, if only...
If only we weren't so lonely...

There's sadness in me, I can feel it each day,
As my youth slips away and my hair turns gray,
While the aging musicians, with their former hit songs,
Try in vain to look young with their youth all but gone,
And all I can think of: if only...
If only we weren't so lonely...

Yet time keeps on ticking and we cannot hide
The truth and the hurt and one more suicide
That made today's paper--if only...
If only we weren't so lonely...

But sometimes I wake to the radiant sun,
That's letting me know that the day has begun,
And I look at your smile, and it seems to explain
Why life has its moments of pleasure and pain,
Why the sun still returns at the end of each rain,
As I look at this world sad and lonely...
Then I look in your eyes, the eyes of a child,
That remind me of when we were crazy and wild,
Those eyes that keep saying: "If only!"

 
                                                                         March 12, 2001
                                                                     --Alexander Shaumyan