If That's What You Need

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
You’re beautiful and I won’t tell the cops
Those are the only two ways I can think to say right now
Not to display the countless others I could mention right off the top of my head that I think about everyday

You teach me things
Like Spanish and patience
How to love and not to run away
Even when I don’t fully believe that yet, you just don’t seem to have that abi1ity

But I feel so selfish, so arrogant so much of the time
And it’s not that I walk on people trying to; more like I make circumstances just so for them to allow me to walk on them
I don’t walk so good anyway
You know how to confront me, bring my soul to peace, but I still get the strange suspicion that you know more than I know you know

Quiet and shameful ways about me in the moment, but one of them’s gone now
A lack of firm, solid ground to stand on and of consistent meals, but the cigarette I miss is out
I’d do anything for this, but I fear even that’s not enough, adding a materialistic side to things that isn’t me at all
But her smile, her laugh, her face, her touch is enough to make anything sufficient

But no, she deserves this symbol, woven from that beautiful material in the rock
I cheated, much like that one night in the motel room when I did what I ought not to have done and apologized for days later
He cheated, too, though; cheated my manipulation with better timing
Time – I’m obsessed with it, but I don’t know how to use it too well and I love to talk, but I’ll only communicate with her and even that’s not good enough

All my friends say I’m wrong, but I keep hoping they are
That’s a harsh thing to say, but it’s true and bitterness ensues
Oh, well! I won’t live there for too much longer anyway
I’m a romantic drifter who keeps returning to someplace and that’s not your fault, baby

But I love you so much I’ll pack up and leave everything else behind, just go home
If that’s what you need from me tonight…
You make my mind sharper than knives
Cutting through all the sloth, the frailties, and the flawed inconsistencies in things