The Thin Line Between Love and Hate

Spare a thought for the abused, the heartbroken and all the other afflictions of LOVE on Valentines Day. And on any other day when you flaunt your love and happiness around.

Give me, give me, give me a fake flower...

For all the love I give, I need a card or a fake flower

To make it all worthwhile and to know that your love is real.

 

There's a thin line between love and hate. 

It's the time of year we love to flaunt in other people's faces,

It's the time we love to be loved and love to hate, it's a time to make us hate.

 

There's more to life than love, we don't need to be loved to make it worthwhile.

Gentleness, caring and politeness are unrespected all year round in real life

So why is it okay to show some fake love just because it's a national holiday?

 

Life goes on and on love is a constant reminder of how painful life can be.

Why put ourselves through so much pain for a ephemeral feeling?

That may or may not exist but hurts more than most.

 

The rise and fall of rain is as constant as pain.

Love is a rain cloud that builds and builds up into hate,

Couples in the rain are just lonely faces out of the rain.

 

Full of questions these days we torture ourselves for fiction.

Love and religion are the fictions that afflict our lives with lazy answers,

That only reveal the thin line between love and hate.

 

Feelings are frowned upon and meant to be kept hidden, 

Unless it's a national phoney day like Valentines or Christmas.

Pleasure in other people's misery, it's just VE day all over again.

 

Shallow people keep silent real emotions in exhange for fake flowers,

Yet thinking and feelings are the only damn things the government can't sell off.

Try living a little and thinking for yourself or else...

We'll be nothing more than brainless capitalist plastic flowers.

    

Reviews

[Just Charles]

I wonder why Valentine's Day inspires artists to create art... Interesting beginning. However, I don't necessarily agree with the first statement made in the 3rd stanza. I think love is the aspiration of all. Anyways, a very cynical look at love painted by the narrator. In hind sight, the narrator intelligently and elegantly bashes Valentine's Day.

[Riptide]

Very meaningful poem, though I too don't agree with the first line in the third stanza. I believe love is a powerful thing, a necessity of life, though romantic love isn't the only way. I think motherly love, fatherly love, brotherly love, sisterly love, and friendly love are just as important. To have someone love you at all, no matter what kind of love, is a fulfillment in life. I see what you mean by the poem, though. Valentines Day is a holiday specifically for you to give your love a flower. It's a day of flaunting your relationship, or hiding in the shadows of your singularity. It's around this date that there are higher suicide rates as well. In my opinion, if you truly love someone, you don't need a national holiday to prove it.

Very well done poem.

[Quinn Blackburn]

Beautiful! You've summed up our thoughts on that greeting card holiday perfectly. :o) The only flowers we give each other here are living ones we can plant. Wonderful wordcrafting here, you've given great shape to your thoughts. Thoughtful, honest, wickedly descriptive. I particularly enjoyed the third stanza, and that picture at the end is a hilarious cherry on top of this tart poetic confection :o) well done!

[misha]

Great job, this is true in so many ways.

[Rose Masen]

This was brilliant. It really does break down this "holiday" piece by piece and shows it at it's worst- raw and fake. You wouldn't believe the imagery running through my head when reading this. I loved it.

[Ebb and Flow]

:) I truly love this. I hate V-day with all my little heart despite being engaged. It's a despicable holiday that degrades love. This is wonderful and very much shadow's my feelings on the day. Very well written.

Krys

[L'Enfant Terrible]

I love it, is one of my favorite is very raw and quite brutal with love but as an anti-Valentine's day piece of art is very good cause doesn't follow the clichés of hating it all just for the sake of it but instead on building a well argument, besides is not anti-love which for an anti-Valentine's day work is quite hard to achieve without looking fake.
Brilliant

[NoneOfYourBusiness akaK..]

every line cracks a piece of shell off the ridiculous and moronic fear driven consumption of modern societies~ I can relate as I have never followed the herd into mindless purchases and belief in all the nonsense idiocy vomited out by corporations and media to keep the sheeple happily baaing as they wither cognitively~BRAVO!

[Kelsie Eileen Stark]

Wonderfully written! Brilliant descriptions for the emotions and feelings...
such a beautiful piece..

[cfix]

simply outstanding,
such emotions written, love the pic used.