What is love?
‘What is love?’ is not a rhetorical question
probably doesn’t need to be asked
unless other banalities are unavailable
better to have not loved and asked
What isn’t love?
Love isn’t the clichés you see on
posters, mugs, memes
love isn’t sappy songs or rom coms
soap opera TV serials or
Hallmark holiday movies
Love isn’t what you think it is
love isn’t what you try
love isn’t what you want it to be
love isn’t we’ll never say goodbye
Love is
Love isn’t
Love was
Love wasn’t
Love isn’t should have
Love isn’t could have
Love certainly isn’t would have
Which is why she wasn’t
which is why I couldn’t
which is why we didn’t
And in the end
the proof was right there
because all we could
say at the time was
it just isn’t.
– Mark L. Lucker
© 2023
http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd
Great twist on the prompt! Love both ‘What isn’t love’ and ‘love isn’t what you think.’ Each line, and the progression of lines, brings up a strong association. Again, I love how your writing loops back to and references other poems in the marathon. I guess that’s not unusual; but for some reason, I am struck by yours (the ‘Hope hope’ of first love). Also perhaps b/c I have recently reconnected with a fifth grade classmate for whom I was his first love. He would agree with you – except that we have, in fact, become really good friends all these years later (more than 60!!) Thank you for all the terrific writing and attendant memories.
Thank you, Sarah. Glad to know that this one hit some rather universal themes. To be honest, I kind of got stuck in the middle of this one, so the fact that you liked the resulting product is nice to hear.
Thanks for reading my stuff!