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When I tell you I love you
It will not be a benediction
It will not spring from my chest
Like a breath I’m holding
And letting loose into a sigh

When I tell you I love you
It will not be proverbial
It will not hold the weight of the years
We spent running back and forth
Between precipice and paradise

When I tell you I love you
It will not be a rebellion
An act of defiance against fortuity
That created an impassable gulf
Where certainty used to be

When I tell you I love you
It will not be for reciprocity
I am not giving you my soul
So you will hand yours in a cage
And I can keep it hostage for eternity

When I tell you I love you
It will not come out as poetry
It will not echo Tagore, Neruda…