this is not a love song

This is not a love song,

there’s no fancy metaphors here.

There’ll be no violets or roses,

no manly heroes shedding tears.

____

This isn’t a soft rock ballad,

all passion, all substance, no style.

It’s not a protest song, a dance-floor-filler

Or a trance mix that musos revile.

____

This is not a punk song,

all bile, all anger, all haste.

This is not a nursery rhyme

clapped by hands through gluey paste.

____

This is not a prog-rock anthem,

All flights of fancy, bizarrely costumed.

I am not a manufactured five-piece

with no talent, but impeccably groomed.

____

So this is not a love song,

I can’t write them very well.

This is a statement, a confession,

and all I have to tell.