When I Do Kiss U

He has not kissed her yet, and the reasons for that lie with her. In When I Do Kiss U, Tupac approaches a woman who keeps her distance-relying entirely on patience. The short love poem comes from the second section of The Rose That Grew from Concrete, titled “Nothing Can Come Between Us”. It is sometimes listed as “When I Do Kiss You”; the book features Tupac’s own spelling with “U”.

Closeness Behind a Wall of Glass

The speaker begins with this observation, but is certain: she will soon tire of being alone. She has not yet overcome the pain of an earlier relationship and therefore shows him her affection only behind a “wall of glass”: visible, but out of reach.

The image of the wall of glass is the heart of the poem. It describes a closeness that remains bounded by caution-they see each other, but do not touch. At the end stands a promise: when he finally kisses her, she will realize that his heart was sincere.

Patience Instead of Conquest: The Speaker Relies on Time

Unlike in some of the book’s other love poems, the speaker does not push here. He accepts that the decision is hers and relies on time. Notable here is a self-confidence that recalls What I See!: there, too, the speaker encounters a woman who fears new feelings after past heartbreak and appeals for trust. In From First Glance, he even claims to have known from the very first glance what was to come.

Together, these poems show a young man who sees himself in the role of the patient, dependable one-in contrast to past partners who caused hurt. Whether that holds true biographically cannot be verified; who the poem is addressed to is not documented. There is also no exact dating: according to the preface by Afeni Shakur, the poems date from the years 1989 to 1991.

More on the book and all poems in the introduction.