How can I know passion
In so sweet a fashion
Without falling very much in love?
How can I be caring
Sensuously sharing
Without feeling all of the above?
Nights as I adore you
How can I be sure to
Keep myself from going overboard
Deep into an ocean
Of intense devotion
How can my true feelings be ignored?
I don't fake affection
Intimate connection
Therefore, tends to rekindle desire
That flaming obsession
That burned for expression
When what's now a smolder was afire
Prone to rediscover
My role as a lover
In a play from which I had retired
With a leading lady
Who was just a baby
When I gave these acts what they required
Once an artful dodger
Now one more old codger
Rolling where I ought to set and rock
Striving to recapture
Remnants of a rapture
I hid in back of old age's clock
I know time will tattle
And that in this battle
I don't function on a level field
Though my kiss and hug'll
Evidence some struggle
In the end we old boys have to yield
Making love is thrilling
And the mind is willing
But, alas, sweet lass the flesh is weak
For no other reason
Than it is the season
When I've gone away beyond my peak
Being with you bedded
Down like newly wedded
I'm somewhat unsettled in my soul
By my conscience harassed
And indeed embarrassed
Like a thief who's caught with something stole
What I'm re-enacting
I can feel impacting
Where sweet sentiment becomes sincere
Where flirtatious notions
Turn to strong emotions
Which is just exactly what I fear
I'm in poor condition
For re-imposition
Of love's discipline and jealous rule
All those strains and stresses
With which love possesses
Turning me into a damned old fool
My mirror reminds me
That my peers will find me
Just another pitiful poor sap
Who should be in sleeping
Instead of out leaping
To broad jump the generation gap
The simply outrageous
Difference in our ages
Will generate gossip, that's for sure
Some people are bound to
Condemn and denounce you
And imply your motives are impure
Members of your family
Will be sure to damn me
As my kinfolk go to damning, too
They'll say we were never
Born to be together
And criticize everything we do
Knowing what's forbidden
We've kept ourselves hidden
Out of sight from everybody else
I have found, however
I am not so clever
I can keep our secret from myself
I hear cupid calling
And feel myself falling
Under the enchantments you prepare
As with every gesture
You increase the pressure
To explode into a love affair
If I had the wit to
Walk away and quit you
Before I'm completely in your pow'r
Were I that sagacious
Then, my goodness gracious
I'd be out of here within the hour
I fear should I linger
Wrapped around your finger
I'll be wound up in a dizzy whirl
Wheezing in my dotage
To provide high voltage
Satisfactions to a busy girl
Try as best I might to
Manfully excite you
Is it in my arms that you belong?
Have I still the sinew
Sufficient to win you
From some younger man who's going strong?
You have ways to pet me
Always apt to get me
Eager to perform my very best
Every bit as frisky
As I was pre-sixty
(At the risk of cardiac arrest)
Pleasure you keep giving
Make life so worth living
That I 'm moved to take most any chance
Rational or insane
In order to remain
With you under any circumstance
I'm as set to partake
Of whatever heartache
May await me just beyond the bend
As I am to languish
In whatever anguish
Lies between here and ultimate end
So let gossips gabble
Let the kinfolk babble
Let tomorrow threaten its defeats
Let the judges scold an'
Call me "dirty old man"
I still have my appetite for sweets
I intend to tarry
Here with you and marry
In whatever way we both agree
I will summon courage
To sincerely cherish
And thank God for sending you to me
How can I know passion
In so sweet a fashion
Without falling very much in love?
How can I be sharing
Sensuously caring
Without feeling all of the above?