I wasn't worth the struggle

[joel]

"I wasn't worth the struggle," --so she said
if wordlessly to me while worded vows
her bridal voice professed to you; and I
could not respond in easy kind - and yet
I'm sure as wordlessly as she'd, I spoke
the only answer I could muster: "Yes,
I struggled--not to win your love for me
as much as to respect the dignity
of love that chooses freely whom to bless.
If I had fought for you, if I had broke
within your weaker love for him to set
your stronger love within my future, I
would be your captor--Capture disavows
your freedom's love; and love is free or dead."