Love

In elementary school, love is so easy
Share a cookie, a three-second hug,
A quick touch of the hands and
Suddenly it’s love, boyfriend and girlfriend.

You push each other on the swings,
Maybe pick a handful of dandelions
For the girl of your dreams,
In between drawing with crayons and napping.

Middle school is like a loving hell,
You go through layers and layers of friends.
Adam says that Kevin overheard Sarah
Talking with Amy about how Travis has a friend
Who is called Sam who might like you.

You go through giggling, anonymous candy-grams,
He-said, she-said type of deals and in the end,
You still can’t figure out if he likes you or not,
But that’s the middle years, when going out
Counts as a day, and love is nothing but a word.

Don’t get me started about high school,
Where love is dramatized and acted out
Like there’s an audience just standing there
Staring at a happy couple twenty-four/seven.

But the difference is, girls and guys
Aren’t the only type of love there is.
Girls and girls, guys and guys,
It’s like a very different world.

Love is more defined, longer kisses and hugs
All around and hugs aren’t for the lovers
Anymore than problems don’t go deeper
Than a cut in the arm that bubbles out blood.

Relationships counts as a month,
At the very least a few weeks,
Where they make goo-goo eyes
And it’s considered modern ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

Romance is dreamed, often, and fantasized, always.
Rejection lasts longer and emotional pain actually
Causes an hour’s worth of tears.
And getting over someone takes longer than a day.

There’s something physical about high school love,
Involving a bed, privacy and contraception.
There’s something weird about high school love,
How crushes and liking are defined separately.

Crushes are like just physical attraction,
Pure and simple physical. Want. Need.
Liking is for the entire package.
One that you want to rip open like it’s Christmas morning.

Getting your heart stomped on,
It adds to high school dramatics.
It happens all the time, every day.
And they say that young teens can’t love.

Written November 7 2004.