love is stupid
me and my friends
thought it was hilarious
i grew up making fun of harry styles
of taylor swift and the legendary john
for their sappy songs
about the same things
i mean how was all of me
supposed to mean
that much to another person
was love really a real thing?
because growing up
i was told love wasn’t for me
at least culturally i wasn’t supposed
to get into the habit of falling until
i could stand up on my own two feet
but what they didn’t tell me
was by the time i was old enough
to have permission to ask her out to coffee
i wouldn’t know how to ask her if she loved me
love is make believe
at least that’s what my uncle told me
i mean he didn’t say it to my face
but implied with his own relationship
that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be
love is hard
but bruno mars said
i would die with a smile
so why not stick around a while?
love is cheesy sometimes
and cheezy love is just fine
but love is terrifying
it’s terrifying
to watch my friends
enter whirlwind romances
and wonder if i’ll ever
have one of their many chances
to love and be loved
at the same time
to hold on to another
in a world beyond time
to engage in companionship
like nothing else matters
love doesn’t come around often
and love is not guaranteed
it’s not every day i
stumble upon a darling i’d
be willing to fall in love with
but beggars can’t be choosers
i mean how much longer
before i have to switch to guys?
love is possible but
you have to make the first move
you have to initiate
you have to pretend like
you’re not pooping your pants
like you’re not terrified
one time someone told me
“you have to play the game” right
i mean how can i be honest
if i’m scared of what’ll happen
if she found out i was a nice guy?
no you have to buy dinner
after all, love is so cheap!
said no one ever
but in my digression
i can’t forget to admit
that the rappers were right
about one thing — love is lit
love can make a little boy feel
that love is like the movies
i mean it never really is
but can you let a kid dream
maybe one day she’ll walk by
and i’ll get to sweep her off her feet
or she’ll sweep me off mine
either way i’m in for the ride
or at least an opportunity to try
to realize my bollywood dreams
to be the bachchan to my ashwariya rai
love is partnership of all kinds
love is four eyes
making peace with compromise
reminding each other why i
decided to take a leap of faith
and tell you i loved you last night
that was shakespeare
love doesn’t make sense
maybe that’s why its so fun to try
because love is better than the movies
and though i don’t know who you are
or where you’ve been all my life
i know there isn’t a logic to love
so it’s only a matter of time
before for this hopeless romantic
gets to meet another wunderkind
willing to make believe fantasies
and create unbelievable realities
willing to take a risk
willing to lose it all
willing to find capital L love in him
after all love doesn’t have a definition
my parents will celebrate their
twenty-fifth marriage anniversary this year
and i hope i’ll get the chance to
mean something to another
like they have to each other for so long
and their love had begun
in a newspaper ad my
dad’s parents had put out in 2001
because that’s how it was done back then
their love has never been perfect
and at times, it’s made me confused
how could they argue over petty little things
and oftentimes be so rude
but then i watch the way they love me
the way they take care of my brother
the way they took pay cuts so they
could be present as father and mother
their love isn’t perfect
but their love is real
and that is the kind of love
i’ll stick around for
that’s the kind of love
i can’t wait to feel