Before You Said “I Love You”,

Before you said “I love you”,
You told me I’d get hurt.
You said I’d get bored or lose interest
And that I should focus on myself
Or someone else entirely.

Before you said “I love you”,
You did your best to feign interest
Because you convinced yourself
That you can’t lose
What you don’t take.

Before you said “I love you”,
You declared it’s just a phase.
That we were a passing moment
And our paths were too different
To be parallel.

But before you said “I love you”,
I was already deafened
Because my mind was too focused
On the words
I decided on the day we met.

Which was that I love you.
No matter how long it takes
For you to say it back.