I

So here it is, The soul transposed That never could quite lose control So here I am And here I stand A shell of what was once a man I used to know love's sweet caress I used to feel, within a kiss, That there, encapsuled, was the truth I used to feel, but I was young And time has torn my mind from songs once sung By a fleeting fool, foundering in youth Ah, those were the days When a fleeting beat of heart Could forever alter every part of my entire being, Letting loose the tongue to say three words That I could never stay But, alas, the heart soon becomes continent Lost within complacency Content with all the naught of feeling Never even seeing something else, The possibility of sacrifice for aught but self But no, I am not who I was The past could never thrall me A newborn soul, reborn because The heart will ever be So now I stand, confined by time and place A half-dead smile transfixed upon my face An o'er-used lack of interest A slight expression of unrest But I have seen, and I have heard I've tried to fade from this fell world My soul has known how love can kill My soul's shackled its silent will "I Love" Ah! Only now I know These words once said now ring most vast But hollow For now empirically I know The selfsame truth of empty soul A tear that falls into the dust That gathers at my feet Love, That death so deep in me Has ever known what it has been To be