This is My Love Poem

My heart is raw: Making my whole soul and body vulnerable, sensitive–

This warm breeze on my skin feels like ice water on a sensitive tooth.

This is what love feels like. Love in the arrival. Love in the leaving.

As a child and into adolescent this feeling gave me urge to run and hide with inappropriate jokes, eye rolls, or mindless mainstream fiction–the true Western way. It felt unbearable. It felt like pain. Instead, now, I accept it. Let it exist. Let the intensity pass.

Because now I know this is only the tender side of love. The sister to its bubbling laughter and joy. The part that lets you know it is real.