176. What Is Love?

through drunken memories of
       cold, forgetful nights under
                          neon lights,
i never knew love and life to be little more
       than a midnight cocktail--
it went down rough and hard
                on a scratchy throat
                past shadowy thoughts
          late on a lonely evening,
          room 2840 of a high-rise hotel--
and worst of all, love was gone with the alcohol
                                  when the morning came.
what a heartless world for a romantic
                                  who wanted only to know
                                  just what love really was.
it seemed so distant,
                that “love” thing.
i was a blind man on a sinking ship--
       hundred people around me,
       but no one cared enough to take my hand
                                  and show me
                                  to a lifeboat.
i always took the bottle of french wine
       and said, “why not?  you only live once.
          no one will ever really love me!
          what the hell is love anyway?
          what’s it all for?”

Now, sitting here with you,
       look, my dear, into my eyes and tell me.......
          tell me of the happiness you see through them
                                  into my heart.
I’ve learned love is always more
          than a midnight dream,
          but a reality.
I was always a dreamer,
       never wanted reality,
                until you came along.
Love is when you thank me
       even though you know you don’t have to.
Love is wanting only one thing in life--
       to make you happy at all the costs.
When you look at me with those eyes
       after I hand you a rose,
       after I give you another part of my blue world,
       the love shows deep in your smile.
Love is being my best friend,
       holding me when I cry,
       like I do whenever we dance together,
       and telling me it’s all right.
It’s the way the sun reflects off your velvet face,
       and it’s the portrait of you in my mind
       as I tell her I can’t because you’re my baby,
       the only one in all my life.
It’s knowing deep in my heart
       no one will ever take your place.
Love is putting you before me
       no matter what pain it causes,
And love’s also in the way you’ve changed
       how I look at life.
Life is no longer a quick game where no one cares,
       a meaningless wasteland of nothing,
Because now I know what it’s all for--
It’s all for the shimmer in your eyes
When you say, “I love you.”