Seems like only yesterday   I left my mind behind   Down in the gypsy cafe   With a friend of a friend of mine      She sat with a baby heavy on her knee   Yet spoke of life most free from slavery   With eyes that showed no trace of misery   A phrase in connection first with she occurred      That love is just a fou letter word      Outside a rambling store-front window   Cats meowed to the break of day   Me, I kept my mouth shut   To you I had no words to say      My experience was limited and underfed   You were talking while I hid   To the one who was the father of your kid   You probably didn't think I did, but I heard you say      That love is just a four letter word      I said goodbye unnoticed   Pushed forth into my own games   Drifting in and out of lifetimes   Unmentionable by name      Searching for my double, looking for   Complete evaporation to the core   Though I tried and failed at finding any door   I must have thought that there was nothing more absurd than      That love is just a four letter word      Though I never knew just what you meant   When you were speaking to your man   I can only think in terms of me   And now I understand      After waking enough times to think I see   The holy kiss that's supposed to last eternity   Blow up in smoke, its destiny, falls on strangers, travels free   Yes, I know now, traps are only set by me   And I do not really need to be assured      That love is just a four letter word      Strange it is to be beside you   Many years and tables turned   You'd probably not believe me   If I told you all I've learned      And it is very, very weird indeed yo hear words like forever plead   Those ships run through my mind, I cannot cheat   It's like looking in the teacher's face complete   I can say nothing to you but repeat what I heard      That love is just a four letter word