Love is an Illusion


(song lyrics; link to sheet music is below)

[verse 1]
Swiping left and swiping right, this swiping going on all night.
So many fishes in the sea, if I hook one would they hook me?
Meet some for tea, meet some for more, some start out fun, all end a chore.
They all seem diff’rent starting the game, but in the end they’re all the same.
Oh, in the end they’re all the same.

[chorus 1]
Love is the illusion that not everyone’s the same, that
God made someone special just for me.
Love is the presumption they’re not just fish in the sea,
and I wish someone were fishing just for me,
and I wish someone were fishing just for me.

[verse 2]
Mail box full of help-me pleas compel my human empathies.
Some are sick and some are poor and some are victims of another war.
But I can’t give to every one ’cause I’d be left with less than none.
So must I choose who’s less to blame? ’Cause in the end they’re not the same?
Oh, in the end they’re not the same.

[chorus 2]
Love is the illusion that near everyone’s the same
and equally deserving charity.
Love is the presumption we are all children of God,
I just wish he loved his children equally,
I just wish he loved his children equally.

[bridge]
If everyone’s deserving across all humanity,
then how can I pick only one for lifelong loyalty?
If there’s a perfect someone who is better than the rest
then why should random people say it’s better to divest?

[chorus reprise and outro]
Love is the illusion that not everyone’s the same
that God made someone special just for me.
Love is the presumption they’re not just fish in the sea,
and I wish someone were fishing just for me.
Love is the illusion that near everyone’s the same
and equally deserving charity.
Love is the presumption we are all children of God,
I just wish he loved his children equally,
I just wish God loved this child specially.


Image of first page of sheet music. PDF of sheet music

Notes: In Meredith Root-Bernstein’s book, Hock, there is a poem titled “Mardeena Pompon” with this epigraph: “Love is the illusion that one person differs from another. – Avner Offer, The Challenge of Affluence.” The epigraph grabbed my mind, and became the seed for this poem/song. (If you would like to perform or record this song publicly, I would be delighted, and please contact me.)

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