how love looks like
THIS IS HOW LOVE LOOKS LIKE when it breaks your bones and leaves you in the gutter to rot: a stiff smile / goosebumps lining your spine. dark. you will taste the malice on its tongue as it kisses you goodnight. cold hands wrangling your neck. the last embrace, a noose. alarm bells going off, but it’s too late already.
THIS IS HOW LOVE LOOKS LIKE for the first time: blinding, the most beautiful thing you have ever seen. everything you had possibly hoped for. a wonder. you will take love by the hand and spit out promises of forever. you’re certain this will last. (it will not.)
THIS IS HOW LOVE LOOKS LIKE when it leaves: doesn’t look back. grotesque, even when the lights are off. a mere shadow of the glory it once was. you doubt you’ll ever find another like it (you will. better, this time)
THIS IS HOW LOVE LOOKS LIKE when you learn to forget: a blur. eyes closed, a distant voice. unrecognizable.
THIS IS HOW LOVE LOOKS LIKE when it finally decides to stay: quiet. painfully soft. at first, a humble visitor, maybe even just a passerby. for the most part, you’re in shock. suspicious, even. always on your toes, waiting to hear the sound of the door opening and closing for the last time. teetering, on the edge. only a matter of time before it crashes and burns. eventually, love becomes a resident. unpacks it bags and changes the sheets. love looks so beautiful under the early morning light.
but when love finally learns to stay,
all you will do
is wait for it
to leave.
riverside reflection
we peer into the river, waiting a half-second too long for the ripples to settle, and finally, we see. our reflections, only slightly distorted, aren’t what we expected. a bit too angled to the left, much too vague for our tastes, temporal. uglier than what we had imagined. your eyes search for something more than just this–but this is it. the sun rises and reminds us that we were promised nothing less.
About the author: Patricia P. is a 16 year old poet who hails from the Philippines. Her work has been published in COE Review, Insert Lit Mag Here, The Wait Poetry Anthology, Hypertrophic Literary, and other online publications. Her hobbies include having an existential crisis out of nowhere and wondering what's for dinner.
