HOW COULD I HAVE DOUBTED
I stopped looking for you
I stopped waiting for you
I stopped dying for you
and I started dying for myselfI aged rapidly
I became fat in the face
and soft in the gut
and I forgot that I ever loved youI was old
I had no focus, no mission
I wandered around eating and buying
bigger and bigger clothes
and I forgot why I hated
every long moment that was mine to fillWhy did you come back to me tonight
I can’t even get off this chair
Tears run down my cheeks
I am in love again
I can live like this
— Leonard Cohen (b. 1934), Canadian poet, composer, author
