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 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 match sticks Crumble into one another My love winks, she does not 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.