1/19/23, 2:42 PM What to Say Upon Being Asked to Be Friends by… | Poetry Foundation

What to Say Upon Being Asked to Be Friends

B Y J U L I A N TA L A M A N T E Z B R O L A S K I

Why speak of hate, when I do bleed for love?

Not hate, my love, but Love doth bite my tongue
Till I taste stuff that makes my rhyming rough
So flatter I my fever for the one
For whom I inly mourn, though seem to shun.
A rose is arrows is eros, so what
If I confuse the shade that I’ve become
With winedark substance in a lover’s cup?
But stop my tonguely wound, I’ve bled enough.
If I be fair, or false, or freaked with fear
If I my tongue in lockèd box immure
Blame not me, for I am sick with love.
     Yet would I be your friend most willingly
     Since friendship would infect me killingly.

Julian T. Brolaski, "What to Say Upon Being Asked to Be Friends" from Advice for Lovers , City Lights Spotlight No.

7. Copyright © 2012 by Julian T. Brolaski.  Reprinted by permission of City Lights Books.

Source: Advice for Lovers (City Lights Books, 2012)

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