Defining Love

To me, love has always been more than “at first sight”

            love is at every sight

To me, love has never been “I can’t live without you”

            love is “I can live without you, I just never want to”

To me, love isn’t built out of bricks made of similarity and commonality

            love is a wall full of holes and different beliefs, and thinking it’s beautiful anyway

To me, love isn’t quiet because it’s afraid of being misunderstood or degraded

            love is bold and full of exclamation points and honesty

To me, love cannot be invisible and hidden

            love is displayed and showcased

To me, love is not “I love you even when I hate you”

            love isn’t porous enough for even the smallest drop of hate to get in

To me, love is never “I don’t know who I am without you”

            love is feeling secure enough in yourself to build a new home in someone else

To me, love cannot be patched with “I’m sorry”

            love is unapologetic and shouldn’t require band-aids

To me, love is not “It won’t happen again”

            love wouldn’t have let it happen in the first place

To me, love is not felt only through bodies and affection

            love is being able to feel intimacy in only eye contact and words

To me, love is kind and bold and brace and fire and

            love is love is love is love is

            love.