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Hineini

If I had a cigarette, today I would smoke it. I haven't smoked in many years, but I'd show you what a grieving woman can do with a pack of tobacco and some papers!!

All I have is a bottle of sherry. All I had was a bottle of sherry.

For so many decades you sang for me. Sang my sadness and my loneliness and my despair. Now, what shall I do with these feelings?

I loved you when I was 16, and I have loved you every day since. (As have millions of other women, of course) I am almost old now, and you have left me. How could you! How could you. Hineini, Mr. Cohen, didn't you hear me shouting, take me along!

You probably never knew that we were born on the same day, you and I, the man with the golden voice and the woman who can't sing.

I knew your friend Irving Layton, and you'll be having a laugh with him soon. Say hello for me.

So much darkness. I will cut my hair. I will never be afraid again. I will stand tall. I will speak my mind. Hell, I will sing, my Lord!


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