Love is too small a word

Love is too small a word

It's been too many years

It's been too many betrayals
It's been too many mercies
It's been too many sacrifices
It's been too many plans

It's been too many games
It's been too many movies

It's been too many too manys

Love is too small a word

Tell me you love me

Tell me you love me
so that I forgive
everything else you said 
          and we can fast forward
          to the part where we

          get tired of each other

and I remind you

that you loved me once

          and you tell me 

          that was because

          I once did too.

Metaphors

 Powerful, Versatile,

        Delicate, Subtle

Symbols of experience

        transcending the bounds

                of explanations through

                                Their compact forms.

If you doubt me, ask

        those who sacrifice souls at Their alter

               and murmur incantations at Their feet.

 And if you're prepared for it,    

             watch what happens when 

                            a jilted 

                                  lover, 

                                      poet, and

                                           mathematician

                                                       walk into a bar.

Parenthesis

 I would have held you

     like a parenthesis holds

a single word within its

         curves- 

but I'm worried you may

    misplace the 

               (pregnant) pause-

so I've decided

    to avoid the subtlety    

        of sincerity,

and hang you like a quote

    somewhere precariously in the 

middle, "committing" to be

neither 

     here nor

                    there.