NEVER/FOREVER

Don't say I'll love you forever
it's a lie,
just ask the women in my past,
forever has become a cruel agony,
so let's not lie to each other
or to ourselves
and instead just simply say
I love you
and mean it for now
without needing an empty promise
for a time not here yet.

June 13, 1995

(Note: I feel compelled to say something about this poem due to some of the comments here and elsewhere.This was written 10 years ago, it was a dark, depressive, self destructive period in my life.This piece was about the loss of one particular special girl-the one true love of my life-a few years earlier that was still haunting me.This poem (like many) was born of the need to release, purge, those emotions-the anger, the pain & hurt, the depression and the bitterness from which it sprang in irony and self pity.At the time I just didn't see love as I'd always believed it to be.But I realized and knew later that I do believe there is someone for whom 'always and forever' is true.This poem may sound true to those who have ever been hurt or felt betrayed by those words, but there are always exceptions.And sometimes even during 'always and forever' we may get hurt or not believe, but if you keep love alive in your heart, sometimes it comes back to reassure you that 'always and forever' is true.If not, then the capacity for love still remains in the heart.Never lose or let go of that, and you just may someday find your true 'always and forever' love.
This is where I am 10 years after this poem, it may be somewhat true, but now, now I prefer to believe otherwise.)