Lies About Love
by D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930)
We are all liars, because
the truth of yesterday becomes a lie tomorrow,
whereas letters are fixed,
and we live by the letter of truth.
The love I feel for my friends, this year,
is different from the love I felt last year.
If it were not so, it would be a lie.
Yet we reiterate love! love! love!
as if it were a coin with a fixed value
instead of a flower that dies, and opens a different bud.
Image of painting by Carl Herpfer 1836-1897, "The Love Letter", [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.