thoughts on so cruel
[thoughts by khufu]


so cruel
words by bono


[the age old story of the conflict between love and lust
attachment verses detachment]

we crossed the line
who pushed who over?
it doesn't matter to you
it matters to me

we're cut adrift
but still floating
i'm only hanging on
to watch you go down ... my love

[the hero of our song is in love with our heroine but she isn't in love
with him. the line they crossed was the one of emotional involvement
and attachment. his feelings of love and attachment matter to our hero
but they don't matter to our heroine. he is in love while she is only in lust
their relationship is drifting aimlessly and he claims he is only hanging
on to watch her eventual fall from his grace, but in reality he can't let go
because he's floating on cloud nine, but she is drifting away from him.]

i disappeared in you
you disappeared from me
i gave you everything you ever wanted
it wasn't what you wanted

the men who love you, you hate the most
they pass right throught you like a ghost
they look for you but your spirit is in the air
baby ... you're nowhere

[our hero has become so emotionally involved and attached to the object of his
love he has lost his own identity. our heroine follows the age old path of not wanting
what she has and of not being there in the relationship for him. she is this way with
all the men who love her. none of them or their love for her is real to her, she is a
free spirit with no attachments.]

you say in love there are no rules
sweetheart
you're so cruel

[in lust she uses him and discounts his love and rationalizes her
behavior by claiming there are no rules in love so she can do as she
pleases without any consequences or guilt. she doesn't care that it is
cruel to take advantage of his feelings for her and use him this way.]

desperation is a tender trap
it gets you every time
you put you lips to her lips
to stop the lie

her skin is pale like god's only dove
screams like an angel for you love
then she makes you watch her from above
and you need her like a drug

[he is desperate for her love and his desperation overcomes his better
judgment so he continues his physical involvement with her because
when he does it's easy to pretend that she really must love him. how
can she kiss him like that if it isn't real? to him she is god's heavenly
creature and again he is on up cloud nine, addicted to her love.
she isn't in the same place he is.]

you say in love there are no rules
sweetheart
you're so cruel

[and again she rationalizes her behavior and uses his love
for her own purposes not caring how it may affect him.]

she wears my love
like a see-through dress
her lips say one thing
her movements something else
oh love
like a screaming flower
love
dying every hour

[to her his love is transparent, she wraps herself in it but it isn't real for her.
when she kisses him he believes she must love him, but emotionally she
moves away cutting him off, cutting off his love like cutting a flower, and
any flower that is cut slowly dies with every passing hour.]

and you don't know if it's fear or desire
danger the drug that takes you higher?
head of heaven
fingers in the mire

her heart is racing ... you can't keep up
the night is bleeding like a cut
between the horses of love and lust
we are trampled underfoot

[why is he hanging on to this one sided love relationship? is he afraid of
being alone or is there a real desire to be with her? this relationship is
emotionally dangerous for him, is it the adrenalin that he is addicted to?
she looks like an angel, in his head he is on cloud nine, but in reality they
are bogged down in the muck of a bad relationship. what makes it bad is
that they both want different things from it. her heart doesn't stay in one
place for long, he can't capture it, he is loosing her, actually he never had
her to begin with. but as the night goes on neither of them can stop;
between his love and her lust they are both damaged.]

you say in love there are no rules
sweetheart
you're so cruel

to stay with you i'd be a fool
sweetheart
you're so cruel

[and again, she rationalizes using his love to satisfy her lust because
for her there are no rules in love. intellectually he realizes the true
nature of their relationship and the true nature of her character and that
only a fool would stay, but will his heart let his head rule? probably not.]

[thoughts on so cruel] by khufu
Copyright © 1996 by khufu/km
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