Love Minus Zero

My love, she speaks like silence
Without ideals or violence
She doesn't have to say she's faithful
But she's true, like ice, or fire.

People carry roses
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 over situations
Read books, and repeat quotations
Draw conclusions on the wall.

Some speak of the future
My love, she speaks softly
Knows there's no success like failure
And that failure's no success at all.

Cloak and dagger dangles
Madams light the candles
In ceremonies of the horsemen
Even a pawn must hold a grudge.

Statues made of matchsticks
Crumble into one another
My love winks, she doesn't bother
She knows too much to argue or to judge.

The bridge at midnight trembles
The country doctor rambles
Bankers' nieces seek perfection
Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring.

The wind howls like a hammer
The night blows cold and rainy
My love, she's like some raven
At my window with a broken wing.