I don’t know what it is,

but I distrust myself

when I start to like a girl

a lot.

It makes me nervous.

I don’t say the right things

or perhaps I start

to examine,

evaluate,

compute

what I am saying.

If I say, “Do you think it’s going to rain?”

and she says, “I don’t know,”

I start thinking : Does she really like me?

In other words

I get a little creepy.

A friend of mine once said,

“It’s twenty times better to be friends

with someone

than it is to be in love with them.”

I think he’s right and besides,

it’s raining somewhere, programming flowers

and keeping snails happy.

That’s all taken care of.

BUT

if a girl likes me a lot

and starts getting real nervous

and suddenly begins asking me funny questions

and looks sad if I give the wrong answers

and she says things like,

“Do you think it’s going to rain?”

and I say, “It beats me,”

and she says, “Oh,”

and looks a little sad

at the clear blue California sky,

I think : Thank God, it’s you, baby, this time

instead of me.