A Lesson In Love
She was a happy child at age eight
With no shoulders bowed down, bearing a weight
Her parents were in love, or so she thought
Until the event that ripped them apart
At the age of twelve she had become aware
Of the tension that was adrift in the air
Her mother had streaks of black from her eyes
While her father’s mouth was chock-full of lies
By the age of fourteen, her parents had split
Divorce papers were signed and then that was it
The reason, she found, for all of the strife
Was that Father had been untrue to his wife
Her entire world came tumbling down
She turned reclusive, never went out to town
For fear that people would see her and know
The shame that clouded her family so.
In her room, she drew and wrote short stories
All of them dark and all of them gory
Giving vent to her anger, pain, and sadness
In ways that would hide her increasing madness
How could two people, in love with each other
Grow so far apart, like Father and Mother?
How could they tell her of their younger days
And end up right here, in this kind of haze,
A nightmare without a foreseeable end
The separation of each from their best friend?
With all these thoughts and the recurring dreams
Of unending sadness, darkness, and screams
She grew harder inside, till the little girl
Who had once had visions of a joy-filled world,
Was locked away in a corner, kept shut tight
To be revealed only through tears in the night
At age eighteen, she was ready to leave—
The house, the town, she needed a reprieve—
The memories were far too painful to bear
She could not wait till she was out of there
She didn’t have a boyfriend; she once had tried to
But since she couldn’t tell if what he said was true,
And each encounter, to her complete disgust,
With another female was fraught with distrust,
The whole thing fell through within a week’s time
And she was left curled up in dust and grime
Convinced that love was all a big scam
It didn’t exist—not with a man.
She gave up completely on ever finding love
And contented herself with the mere reading of
That wonderful feeling which she’d never know
The one place she never would let her heart go
She wouldn’t listen whenever God spoke
She would just close her ears and cry and choke
On her built-up anger, self-pity and doubt
And she never made an effort to get out
Of the rut she was in, though it ate away
At her young spirit, day after weary day
So she went through life, living it all in fear
Of the things that could hurt her, every year
She never got close to anyone else
She put all her dreams high up on a shelf
Where no one could find them or try to make
Her precious ideas disappear and break
Eventually she grew sick, but no one knew
And at the not-too-old age of seventy-two
She had an attack; she dropped to the floor
To rise, live, and breathe—nevermore
Her life was unhappy, not fulfilled in the least
Always worried that she would be hurt by a beast,
A monster called “love” that prowled around,
Ensnaring people and dragging them down
Tearing their lives completely apart
Ripping and rending to bits their hearts
She never got it through her head
And by then, well, she was dead
She never learned the golden rule
That without love, you’re just a fool
Yes, there will be hurt, but that’s part of it all,
Sometimes the pain’s big, sometimes it is small
But however hard at the time, it does not detract
From the very important, imperative fact
That love is what makes it all right in the end
Love can take the shattered pieces and mend—
The hearts that were broken,
The words that were spoken,
The pain that was caused—
Love acts as the gauze.
Love is what makes people laugh and smile
Love is what makes life all worthwhile.
