Work Text:
Love
It binds people together-
Be they similar or different.
Race, sex, background—
It can lead the heart with a steadfast grip,
Or, it can have no sway.
It can warm the heart
A sun that glows beyond dawn and dusk.
But, when it crosses my path,
I feel a stab of fear.
A sting from a scorpion tail.
This thing we call “love.”
Humans accept and welcome it,
Yet it escapes my grasp.
“I love you.”
You say those words with such ease,
With such confidence.
As if you are reciting a gentle truth.
Why can’t I?
Those three words—
Resting on my lips
Ceasing to go forward.
But, why?
You have seen the world,
The beauty and the burden of it,
Giving you a strength I could never conceive.
The darkness that rests in the heart of man can
consume all whole
Yet the light within you shall never die.
The strength of your mind is forever growing
The knowledge, the experience, the way of your
thought.
Respect for all,
You will never force anyone’s hand
You will never push anyone towards an
undesired want,
Unless it is a need which your help will cause its
desist.
I could search this Earth a hundred times over,
And I will never find another such as you.
Fear may plague my body and mind.
But once my soul knows its freedom from the
scorpion sting,
I can soar the sky with you
And say without nary a doubt in my heart
That I love you.