let your I love yous spill forth
as if you could never hope to hold them back
(sliding through the fingers covering your mouth
and drenching your shirt in the sickly sweet mess
of metaphors and half-formed thoughts
and the sincerest of compliments).
do not use them as bandages
to wrap the temporary wounds life inflicts
(for life will always contain pain
and I'd rather you tell me you love me
because you cannot stand not to
than because you think hearing it may help).