Love Minus Zero

My love, she speaks like silence

Without ideals or violence

She doesn't have to say she's faithful

Yet she's true, like ice, like fire

People carry roses

And make promises by the hours

My love, she laughs like the flowers

Valentines can't buy her

In the dime stores and bus stations

People talk of situations

Read books, repeat quotations

Draw conclusions on the wall

Some speak of the future

My love, she speaks softly

She knows there's no success like failure

And that failure's no success at all

The cloak and dagger dangles

Madams light the candles

In ceremonies of the horsemen

Even the pawn must hold a grudge

Statues made of matchsticks

Crumble into one another

My love winks, she does not bother

She nows too much to argue or to judge

The bridge at midnight trembles

The country doctor rambles

Banker's nieces seek perfection

Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring

The wind howls like a hammer

The night blows rainy

My love, she's like some raven

At my window with a broken wing