Could I Leave You?

[PHYLLIS]
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 love-making 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?
Ha ha, 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 goddamn minute

What
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?
(spoken)
Guess!