"How Can I Tell You?"

It's very strange -
That a man of words
   doesn't know the right ones now...
Standing before you trembling -
   praying the right words will come
   to rescue me and untie my tongue...
So that I might te
ll you
   what needs to be told,
Praying to not break your heart
   or shatter my own.
But what shall I say?
How can I tell you?
The hero of me wants to break the news,
   so you are not the last to know...
How gallant!
While the coward in me hopes
   that you already know what I should say
   and finish my sentences to spare me...
How shameful!
But how do I start?

How can I tell you?
That my lips have tasted the sweetness
   of another lover's lips,
How my heart is unrepentant
   of the misbegotten moon
   which illuminates my heart now...
How can I ever tell you...
That it was nothing you did or didn't do?
That this has nothing to do with you?
How can I ever tell you?
The answer is that I can never tell you.
I have prayed my prayers in vain.
So we go on together, you and I,
   my uncertainty a dark secret
   as I extinguish the light in my heart...
(Did I deceive you?
   Or am I now deceiving my own heart?)
While someone else cries in your place.
  
©2003 poetheart

go back