Love is...(Not)

Because I love you, give me your phone, give up your plans,

leave your friends, your dreams, and your hopes at the door.

Because I love you, construct a prison for yourself,

give up your freedom, and live for me.

"Because I love you" is not love. It is a contract,

Forced servitude with no escape, promising only a downward spiral,

A guarantee of false-promises, sugar-coated candy words veiling arsenic threats.

Love is a bird, feeble and flighty, able to spook with ease,

Yet on thin boned wings, it may alight,

Reaching heights once thought impossible.

Love is not a cage,

built of gilded thorns and sickly sweet poison,

A foundation of lies with despair at its center.

Love is a house,

Built brick by brick by two sets of hands,

Lovingly constructed with promises made right on,

Equal work done by both parties, equilibrium built from combined strength.

Love is not a war,

Tactics to manipulate, exhibiting power over those below you,

The victor gaining fealty as the runner-up is left twisted into a husk.

Love is a shield,

Stronger when forged with the heat of passion,

Genuine sparks giving light to a newfound creation,

Improving upon two concepts,

Unifying and protecting feeble hopes and dreams.

Love is not a bet,

Sleight of hand and contracts,

Promising darker deeds fulfilled regardless,

Whether the other party truly wishes it or not.

Love is genuine,

A gift given selflessly and selfishly in equal measure.

It is not an excuse,

Nor a reason to treat another human being like they’re lesser.

Loving someone is not weakness,

It is a beautiful gift given out of trust and adoration.

Loving someone is not a crime,

Deserving punishment or isolation in return.

Love should be freeing, not condemning,

Selfless, not selfish,

Kind, not cruel,

Love is not a sin,

Nor should it be treated as such.

You are not a bad person for loving yourself,

And if the person you love doesn’t respect that,

That’s not Love.

Disregarding yourself for the sake of another,

That's not Love.