Could I Leave You?

Leave you?
 Leave you?
 How could I leave you?
 How could I go it alone?
 Could I wave the years away
 With a quick goodbye?
 How do you wipe tears away
 When your eyes are dry?
 Sweetheart
 Lover
 Could I recover?
 Give up the joys I have known?
 Not to fetch your pills again
 Every day at five
 Not to give those dinners for ten
 Elderly men from the U.N.
 How could I survive?
 Could I leave you
 And your shelves of the World's Best Books
 And the evenings of martyred looks
 Cryptic sighs
 Sullen glares from those injured eyes?
 Leave the quips with a sting
 Jokes with a sneer
 Passionless lovemaking once a year?
 Leave the lies ill-concealed
 And the wounds never healed
 And the games not worth winning
 And wait!
 I'm just beginning!
 What?
 Leave you?
 Leave you?
 How could I leave you?
 What would I do on my own?
 Putting thoughts of you aside
 In the south of France
 Would I think of suicide?
 Darling, shall we dance?
 Could I live through the pain
 On a terrace in Spain?
 Would it pass?
 It would pass
 Could I bury my rage
 With a boy half your age
 In the grass?
 Bet your ass
 But I've done that already
 Or didn't you know, love?
 Tell me, how could I leave
 When I left long ago, love?
 Could I leave you?
 No, the point is, could you leave me?
 Well, I guess you could leave me the house
 Leave me the flat
 Leave me the Braques and Chagalls and all that
 You could leave me the stocks
 For sentiment's sake
 And ninety percent of the money you make
 And the rugs
 And the cooks
 Darling, you keep the drugs
 Angel, you keep the books
 Honey, I'll take the grand
 Sugar, you keep the spinet
 And all of our friends
 And just, wait a goddam minute!
 Oh
 Leave you?
 Leave you?
 How could I leave you?
 Sweetheart, I have to confess
 Could I leave you?
 Yes
 Will I leave you?
 Will I leave you?
 Guess!