I'll never say 'I love you' to another woman. <br />Those words that burst first time so full, deliciously, <br />of joy, of gratitude at the sharing of an act of 'love'. <br />I don't seek, or long to hear, those same words said to me. <br />I don't know, have never known, I think, <br />their meaning. <br />But once said they must, at any opportunity, <br />be repeated until devalued to worthlessness. <br />'I love you', for each Christmas and every Birthday. <br />For Valentine's Days, 'I love you'. <br />For Wedding Day and First Date Day, ' I love you'. <br />For First Day of Joining in Mutually Consensual Sexual Intercourse, <br />'I love you'. <br />For Saturday nights, 'I love you'. <br />For ironed shirt or sewed on button, <br />for apple pie or ruined roast, <br />for diddums snookums burny finger, <br />'I love you'! <br />And then, when one has been angered, <br />or hurt, been brought to tears, <br />we make it right, with, 'You know I love you.' <br />You know I love you? <br />When cruelty of word or deed has cut so deep? <br />You know I love you? <br />But, if those words, withheld by truce, are never spoken once, <br />they are never spoken to excess. <br />Never spoken to where one has heard it all before. <br />To where one thinks the other said uncaringly, <br />'I love you.' <br />Or even worse, that it was they, themselves, <br />who lied with their, 'I love you.' <br />When those words are withheld by agreement, <br />by will of tender truce, <br />then no longer does lazy, thoughtless, <br />carelessness of, 'I love you', <br />suffice for depth of feeling, or <br />'You know I love you', for remorse. <br />For those words become the way of apathy <br />and, when refused to glibly uttering tongues, <br />must be replaced with something else. <br />With something, surely, more full of caring. <br />And, whether by a difference in glance or touch <br />or tone of voice or smile or kiss, <br />replaced with something from within. <br />With some thoughtful thing, perhaps, <br />of meaning.<br /><br />Red O'Mara<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/if-i-ever-say-i-love-you-it-will-be-politely/
