But I Don't Love You
Nancy Price
May 16 2006


[chorus]
I don't love you, of this I'm sure
Love is a sickness, you are the cure
Love is a sickness, you are the cure
I don't love you, of this I'm sure

I love the rise and fall of your chest
as you sleep and the way you breathe soft when you rest
I love the shape your mouth makes, an upward sliver
when I'm being particularly clever

I love your hair, the way it tangles
defies gravity, sticks up at all angles
your seriousness, and your mouth
in a hard line, in a smirk, in a shout

expressive, severe, and always true
I love all these things but I don't love you

[chorus]

So I've set myself up in this gilded cage
set you up, set you up, for the fall that comes later
It's all there for you, every step of the way
paved in hope, see how I lay

this path of disappointment out for you
the one walked by many more before you
I don't love you now, shouldn't love you ever
why start a love that must be severed?

but this is what I want, this is what's true
I love this cage but I don't love you

[chorus]

Your eye is not ice nor earth nor fire
There's surely no love in it either
no emotion so base or simple or pure
I don't love you, of this I'm sure

You eye is not a window into your soul
it isn't a light that makes me whole
just an eye, not a crystal, not a way
to peer into you, to find what I pray

to find what I want, what I hope is true
I love your eyes but I don't love you

[chorus]

Though I don't love you now, allow me the favour
of thinking this is how it will be forever
allow me the lie of knowing I'm safe
in my cage of surface ice

Let me be fooled, let me be a fool
let me be fooled for now
Show me how you believe the love that you see
even if the only one I'm fooling is me

[chorus/verse 1 simultaneously]