The dreaded L-word
Bringing a fleeting moment of insurmountable joy
before succumbing to the weight of reality.
A reality where that word can only be found in fairy tales
Beautiful, but evading my clumsy fingers’ grasp.
Incapable of even uttering that four-letter word
in fear that it’ll foster unreasonable hope
that will soon shatter my meticulously crafted illusion.
The mere thought of him —my “the one”—
brings me to my knees in defeat,
beaten down from years of sparring with my past.
A heaviness weighing on my chest,
A persistent throbbing in my skull,
A tightness lodged in my throat,
A constant ringing in my ears,
Knocked out and struggling to breathe.
A lone tear trickled down my face once
and has been followed by countless others since.
All because of that one word:
~ l o v e ~