"To An Overeager Lover"

Hush.  Don't -- please don't say
I love you.

Too many times those words have disappeared
into regret
recriminations.

Give me instead
another kiss
or two
or twenty.

Let us drown in kisses
and fumbled first caresses
and thousandth eager comings
glances across the table.

Shriek our joy into the heavens
never think what
empty heavens.

May the age-old
in and out
shield us from the knowledge.

	If it please you,
	say
	I love you.

I will not
contradict.

by Kateri/Mary Anne, moh2@quads.uchicago.edu