When all the worst we fear lets fall its weight
When the gyre widens on and when the wave breaks
When St. Peter loses cool and bars the Gates
When Atlas acts the maggot, makes his arms shake
When the birds are heard again in their singing
Once atrocity is hoarse from voicing shame
When the earth is trembling on some new beginning
With the same sweet shock of when Adam first came

Be, be, be, be, be
Be as you've always been
Be, be, be, be, be
Be as you've always been (lover, be good to me)

Be as you've always been (lover, be good to me)
Be like the love that discovered sin (lover, be good to me)
That freed the first man and will do so again
And lover, be good to me (lover, be good to me)
Be the hopeful feeling when Eden was lost (lover, be good to me)
That's been deaf to our laughter since the master was crossed (lover, be good to me)
Which side of the wall really suffers that cost
Oh lover, be good to me

When the man who gives the order
Is born next time around on the boat sent back
When the bodies starving at the border
Are on TV giving people the sack
Oh, when the sea rises to meet us
Oh when there's nothing left for you and I to do
Oh when there's nobody upstairs to receive us
When I have no kind words left, love for you now

Be, be, be, be, be
Be as you've always been
Be, be, be, be, be
Be as you've always been (lover, be good to me)

Be love in its disrepute (lover, be good to me)
That scorches the hillside and salts every root (lover, be good to me)
And watches the slowing and starving of troops
And lover, be good to me (lover, be good to me)
Be there and just as you stand (lover, be good to me)
Or be like the rose that you hold in your hand (lover, be good to me)
That will grow bold in a barren and desolate land
And lover, be good to me (lover, be good to me)

Love won't you be
Love won't you be
Be as you've always been?
Love won't you be
Love won't you be
Be as you've always been?
Love won't you be
Love won't you be
Be as you've always been?
Love won't you be
Love won't you be
Be as you've always been?

(Lover, be good to me)