Ground and center; hold it tight—
Dammit, greenie, that’s not right!
(Every tear you shed hurts me,
But that’s the way it has to be.)

Ground and center; good, at last!
Once again; grab hard, hold fast.
Half asleep or half awake—
Both of us know what’s at stake.

Ground and center; now it’s sure;
What you have now will endure.
Forgive me what I had to do—
Healing hurts—you know that’s true.

Ground and center; lover, friend—
You won’t break, but now you bend.
Costly lesson, high the price—
But you won’t have to learn it twice!

OTHERLOVE

Lyrics: Mercedes Lackey

Music: Leslie Fish

(Talia: Arrow’s Flight)

I need you as a friend, dear one,
I love you as a brother;
And my body lies beside you

While my heart yearns for another.
I wonder if you understand—
Beneath your careless guise
I seem to sense uneasiness
When looking in your eyes.

I need your help, my friend, and I
Had sworn to stand alone;
How foolish were the vows I made
My present plight has shown.
But don’t mistake my need for love
However strong it seems—
For while I lie beside you
Someone else is in my dreams.

I wish that I could know your thoughts;
I only sense your pain—
Unease behind the smile you wear—
A haunted, sad refrain.
I would not be the cause of grief—
I’ve often told you so—
Yet there’s a place within my heart
Where you, love, cannot go.

AFTER MIDNIGHT

Lyrics: Mercedes Lackey

Music: Leslie Fish

(Kris: Arrow’s Flight)

In the dead, dark hours after midnight
When the world seems to stop in its place,
You can see a little more clearly,
You can look your life in the face;
You can see the things that you have to—
Speak the words too true for the day.
In the dead, dark hours after midnight,
Little friend, will you listen—and stay?

In the time when I never knew you
I could view the world as my own—
I was God’s own gift to his creatures,
And I wore an armor of stone.
I was wise and faithful and noble—
I was pompous, pious and cold.
I was cruel when I never meant it—
Far too cool to touch or to hold.

It was you who broke through my armor;
It was you who broke through the wall,
With your pain and your desperation—
How could I not answer your call?
How could I have guessed you would touch me,
And in ways I could not control?
How could I have known I would need you—
Or have guessed you’d see to my soul?