what is love?
it is sunflowers silently turning their corollas towards the sun
waves leaping up to grab the milky disc that is the moon
which tastes like glacial mint
i know this because i’ve bitten, out of romance,
into planets within my dreams
love is drowsiness from such hallucinations
the shock of joy when a beast licks your skin out of affection
it is that covert language between two colors on a canvas
who secretly blend into each other’s arms when you’re not looking
just yesterday, red and blue birthed before my stunned eyes:
the most cosmic purple
of which i weaved a dense cloak to hide myself,
like love remains hidden and free-flowing within me
as it remains hidden in the nectar of a radiant flower,
driving the fluttering bees to madness
the hot flush in my face when i look into my lover’s eyes,
ears ringing, it is those sensations
when i say i love you
what i mean is i’d like to live you
so you can live me in return
and together we recoil off of each other,
alive, in pure ecstasy,
till infinity and in loops
love is intoxication, a disbelief nestling euphoria
it is my head spinning in orbits from inhaling a scarlet rose
the pleasure from insatiably drinking crystal waters from springs
the touch of his fingers on my neck,
the sweet kiss that was randomly planted on my shoulder
it is that very night i dived so deep into a person’s soul,
that instead of drowning, grew gills
it is the notes in a profound piano piece chasing each other playfully,
but in such harmony which can only be born out of intense admiration
love is not knowing
it is incomprehension, but resting in that pit a secret comprehension
it is the justified violence of biting into a prey, and voraciously devouring it
i still recall how when i dug into you my dear, i tasted fragrant flower petals
plagued, i kept eating them in greed
but soon i grew lightheaded and decided it was your turn to hunt me
my love was my surrender;
what else is love?
the hurricanes in my stomach
the gentle recovery from an illness of not having loved
that sublime rebirth that succeeds death
the desperate devotion in a dog’s eyes
vibrating pulsations in a cat’s purr
the moth automatically voyaging to the lamp
lips colliding like meteors
yet
i shiver thinking of love’s cruelty
the pain it unleashes
breaking you into pieces, which further shatter into dust
it is the merciless suffocation of being unloved by another
nights filled with restlessness
dreams tainted with despair
voids left hollow
gallons of tears swallowed
but somehow in the end
it conquers itself, proud, and stitches up all lesions
rescuing and cradling you in a cocoon of tenderness
i breathe heavy
because the more i define what this means to me
the faster i’ll evaporate
i’m realizing i’ve been crushed,
under the brutal weight of deciphering my crypt
but i’d like to end by saying
what is love if not magnificence, a trembling power
our unparalleled propensity to hypnotize and be enchanted in return
but most of all —
it is revolution