I don't ask you to be faithful - you're beautiful, after all -
but just that I be spared the pain of knowing.
I make no stringent demands that you should really be chaste,
but only that you try to cover up.
If a girl can claim to be pure, it's the same as being pure:
it's only admitted vice that makes for scandal.
What madness, to confess by day what's wrapped in night,
and what you've done in secret, openly tell!
The ******, about to bed some Roman off the street
still locks her door first, keeping out the crowd:
will you yourself then make your sins notorious,
accusing and prosecuting your own crime?
Be wise, and learn at least to imitate chaste girls,
and let me believe you're good, though you are not.
Do what you do, but simply deny you ever did:
there's nothing wrong with public modesty.
There is a proper place for looseness: fill it up
with all voluptuousness, and banish shame;
but when you're done there, then put off all playfulness
and leave your indiscretions in your bed.
There, don't be ashamed to lay your gown aside
and press your thigh against a pressing thigh;
there take and give deep kisses with your crimson lips;
let love contrive a thousand ways of passion;
there let delighted words and moans come ceaselessly,
and make the mattress quiver with playful motion.
But put on with your clothes a face that's all discretion,
and let Shame disavow your shocking deeds.
Trick everyone, trick me: leave me in ignorance;
let me enjoy the life of a happy fool.
Why must I see so often notes received - and sent?
Why must I see two imprints on your bed,
or your hair disarrayed much more than sleep could do?
Why must I notice love bites on your neck?
You all but flaunt your indiscretions in my face.
Think of me, if not of your reputation.
I lose my mind, I die, when you confess you've sinned;
I break out in cold sweat from hand to foot;
I love you then, and hate you - in vain, since I must love you;
I wish then I were dead - and you were too!
I won't investigate or check whatever you try
to hide: I will be thankful to be deceived.
But even if I catch you in the very act
and look on your disgrace with my own eyes,
deny that I have seen what I have clearly seen,
and my eyes will agree with what you claim.
You'll win an easy prize from a man who wants to lose,
only remember to say, 'I didn't do it.'
Since you can gain your victory with one short phrase,
win on account of your judge, if not your case.

When I just can't sleep at night
You are the one on my mind
As I toss and I turn, turning on the light
Can't leave these mem'ries behind.

Day in, day out
I think about
What has come,
What is done
What you said
How you won.
The less it hurts
The more it burns
The more I think
The less I've learned.

In the morning, blinds are closed
Lights just hurt my eyes today
My tested heart never knows
How my emotions are gonna play.

Day in, day out
I think about
What has come,
What is done
What you said
How you won.
The less it hurts
The more it burns
The more I think
The less I've learned.

And when I look for answers
The questions have already gone
And as my heartrate dances
I find I'm searching for the dawn.

*I know I'll learn.

You can't stop the world from turning
If you feel like jumping off
You can't double up your earnings
If your middles gotten soft

You can dream of the solution
But you must act on it as well
Just make sure of what your doing
Cause you can't unring a bell

You can't stop a word that's hateful
Once it's flying through mid air
You can't make a person grateful
If they've never really cared

You can't change the image in the looking glass
Or halt a wave mid swell
A churning ocean is never clear
And you can't unring a bell

You can't start a new beginning
If your at the very  end
Nor untie a knot cinched tight
With only thoughts blown on the wind

You can't promise the world in wonder
And the stars above as well
Then decide at last to take it back
Cause you can't unring a bell

You can't change the law of physics
Or add words to a dried up pen
There's no fourth to your three wishes
And you can't hide behind your name

It's hard to see light if you're too far down
In the digging of your well
Breathing does not mean you're living
And you can't unring a bell

Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island
of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere

except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries - roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water. This

I try to remember when time's measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay - how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures.

686

They say that “Time assuages”—
Time never did assuage—
An actual suffering strengthens
As Sinews do, with age—

Time is a Test of Trouble—
But not a Remedy—
If such it prove, it prove too
There was no Malady—

kiss me goodnight
for i want to hold your hand like gravity holds my feet on the gr
i want to worship your body like i've been waiting a thousand years just to be in the same bed as you
i promise
i'll sew my lips shut so i can't confess my love for the hundreth time
but i'll say it ninety nine times whilst i still can
i love you
they say perfection doesn't exist, but they haven't met you

You never hit me.
But your insults punched me in the gut.
You never beat me.
But your words tore through my insides.
You never choked me.
But your distrust suffocated me.
You never spat on me.
But your condescension swallowed me.
You never broke my bones.
But your lies broke my liveliness.
You never stabbed me.
But the names you called me cut my heart open.

You never struck me.
But you left me,
My confidence,
My heart,
My spirit,
You left it
Mangled
Bruised
Contorted
Defenseless
Broken,
Fifty
Stories
Be­low
The
Rooftop
You
Called
Your
Love.