Love Ain't What It Used To Be

I wish love had headed the warnings of her mother and stopped making that grotesque face.  She was told time and time again that she better stop or her face would stick like that, and that is just what it has done.  The words "I love you", I have to believe, once were as pure and warm and blanketing as I see them.  Not the way most see her and her friends now.  As keys to fear, mistrustfulness, admittance to complacency, and ultimately pain.  I will never see her that way.  Love will forever be wide-eyed, beautiful, young, and brave in my eyes and rather than a weapon it will forever be a shield and a gift.  "I love you" will always be a safe place of absolute truth for me...and that is something that makes me forever grateful.