Love: Two Letter Word

Love is different for me, you see.

I don’t love anyone more than me.

Not even the black of the night sky can change my mind.

Or even a crowd full of admiration

Because one day these will prove to be empty.

When I look for love, it is the mirror I seek,

My reflection always changing, it surges like a pulse

This love without a noose.

It is this word that most wear on their sleeve.

They bare their chests to see what’s underneath.

It is usually greed.

Something gained, something borrowed, something to bury.

My love can never be buried because it is always burning.

Always shining.

I’m burnished in its flame and I’m grateful for the cracks

That it illuminates.

I embrace every flaw,

Because I am alive in it all,

Despite it all.

I choose to pitch my tent where the stars call home.

Because I am home.

I am everything.

I am a consuming fire and a gentle whisper.

I calm storms with a flicker.

I am the guide, I am the sage.

I will not bury myself in rage.

I’m lucky because I make my own luck.

I scan the absurdity that envelops me, the world that hates me, hates love.

I believe in love the way astronauts believe in air.

It is the only way to survive up here.

All alone, but not lonely.

I embrace the new day, the shining sun taking shape

It embraces me back and we repeat the cycle.

For all of the moon’s phases,

I remain the same.

I will keep my shape, my promises, my hope.

What is grief, if not love persevering?

If you take a moment to listen,

You will hear your love too.

If at first you don’t succeed

You will discover that love does,

It persists.

It is even stronger than a stranger’s kiss,

Than the hand of your mother

Or the failings of a father.

It strives and it conquers.

I am silver, refined, continuously asking the flame for a sign

To continue, continue this journey of being

Me.

When the crowds have all gone home, I pitch my tent among the stars and burn.

Recklessly, I love me.