Just Don’t Say You Love Me

Do not lift that word

Like a lantern toward me

I have walked through its glow before

And found only frost on the floor

If you must speak

Let it be in the smaller language

The one made of breath

Of shifting weight

Of truths that don’t pretend to warm

I know the sound of promises

That evaporate at dawn

I’ve held the ashes

Of every almost

You ever offered

So keep that word

Sleeping in your mouth tonight

Let silence be the only honest thing

Between us

And if you feel anything at all

Let it stay unnamed

A quiet trembling thing

That doesn’t need

To lie

To live