You always hurt the one you love

You always hurt the one you love*
A pantoum

for Grumpy

It’s ‘cause I love you most of all
that I don’t think before I speak,
so if I broke your heart last night
just let me blame the Mills’s drawl.

You never think before you speak
to one you shouldn’t hurt at all.
Just let me blame the Mills’s drawl:
“You always hurt the one you love,

the one you shouldn’t hurt at all…”
It’s strange that what they say rings true:
you always hurt the one you love,
whose precious presence will not pall.

It’s strange that what they say rings true.
You crush them till their petals fall,
whose precious presence will not pall.
“You always take the sweetest rose

and crush it till the petals fall…”
I hope you see past my betise.
You always take the sweetest rose;
you find the softness ‘tween the thorns.

I hope you see past my betise,
my hasty words I can’t recall.
Please find the softness ‘tween the thorns.
“You always break the kindest heart

with hasty words you can’t recall,
so if I broke your heart last night…”
(you always break the kindest heart)
“it’s ‘cause I love you most of all.”

*You always hurt the one you love

You always hurt the one you love
The one you shouldn’t hurt at all
You always take the sweetest rose
And crush it till the petals fall
You always break the kindest heart
With a hasty word you can’t recall
So if I broke you heart last night
It’s because I love you most of all

Written by Allan Roberts and Doris Fisher. Recorded by The Mills Brothers in 1944.

*A pantoum is a traditional Malayan form of poetry which utilises a strict form of line repetition where lines 2 and 4 of one stanza are lines 1 and 3 of the next respectively. Lines 1 and 3 from the first stanza also make lines 2 and 4 of the last stanza respectively, to complete the circle of repetiton. The lines are in iambic tetrameter.