A love
story
can never be
about full possession.
The happy marriage,
the requited love, the desire that never
dims:
these are lucky
eventualities but they aren't love
stories.
Love stories depend on
DISAPPOINTMENT,
on unequal
births and feuding
families,
on matrimonial [boredom]
and
at least one cold
heart.
Love stories, nearly without
exception, give love a bad name.
We value love not because it's
stronger than death
but because it's
weaker.
Say what you want about
love:
DEATH WILL FINISH
IT.
You
will not go on loving in the grave,
not in any physical way that will at all
resemble love as we know it on earth.
The perishable
nature of love is
what gives love its
importance in our
lives.
If it were
endless,
if it were on tap,
love wouldn't hit us the way it
does.
And we certainly wouldn't write about it.