B E B E R E

Know that I

There are shadows in "I love you"
Not only love; no, not just that.
There are lingering traces of past experiences
And a contract behind those words.

You say that love has its own language.
But for me, words are useless
If you feel the need to hold pat phrases hostage
As if they were sealed in wax and parchment.

So, know that I...;
Know it.
Know that I...

There is death within "I love you,"
There is 'I see nothing more than you.'
Dead to the world and to its poetry,
No longer reading but one's own rhymes -

A dishonest strategy,
That these three words do not validate.
There is a question in "I love you,"
That asks "and you love me, don't you?"

So, know that I...;
Know it.
Know that I...

-Jean Jacques Goldman