love and pain

I think that love and pain are the same 

there is simply not one 

without the other

people spend their whole lives praying

for a day when someone’s 

love will save them 

picking through the ones 

that didn't quite work out 

we say it's all we need

happiness will find its way

I feel a loneliness in my heart 

I wish to have replaced

cold and empty without 

a chance at light 

still I find I don’t want to 

take another's hand

and decide they are 

my reason for life

fill my heart with dirt 

with no seed to bury inside 

rather I wish to plant it myself

rip away the debris 

until a home is settled

place it in welcome ground

then hide it away

wait for some time and just 

when a lonely cry begins to break

the first root will 

takes hold its place

and I can find love and a place for its pain

Reviews

[John the Baptist]

The speaker seems to have some insight into the perfumed trap called romantic love. It makes one think that there is someone out there that can make you happy and that if you can only find that person, you will be all right. Of such dreams is pain spawned. Nothing external can make you eternally happy, and the divorce statistics bear witness. The last lines of the poem indicate the speaker understands this.