Love is a shapeshifter,
showing up when you least expect.
In the most randomest of places.
At the most inconvenient time.
Love is the person
who’s always late to the party,
leaving you waiting around for hours
as your food gets colder and colder.
Love is the sun on a nice August day,
leaving you warm for hours
as you run along the sandy beaches
of your hometown, collecting seashells
to take home with you later.
Love is the waiter at your favorite restaurant,
a person you spend so little time interacting with
yet still knows your order by heart:
“Chicken sandwich, no tomato
with a glass of red wine.”
Love is the traffic light off 306
that either takes forever to turn green
or changes to red so quickly
you need to slam your brakes on
to not get a ticket.
Love is the kid sitting in the corner
at a party,
scrolling through their phone
wondering when their parents will come
pick them up and take them home.
Love is the random dog
you saw walking in the street,
bobbing along the cobblestone path
as the chilly fall air blows you away.
Love is being stabbed with
ten thousand knives
all at once.
Love is the light that pours into
dark movie theaters, leaving everyone blinded.
Love is anything you need it to be
and everything you don’t.
Love is pain and suffering
and loss and grief.
Love is light and happiness
and smiles and laughs.
Love is a shapeshifter,
showing up when you least expect.
In the most randomest of places.
At the most inconvenient time.
Maybe you haven’t found love yet.
Maybe that’s okay.
Because love will make itself at home
for two days
and then depart on
a four month long adventure
in a new place
with a new time.
But love will always come back.
And if you look hard enough,
you’ll find little things that
remind you that love is still there.
An empty picture frame,
a box of cigars left on a desk,
a coat with no pockets.
Love will come when it needs to
and leave when it wants to
but it will always be there
to welcome you home.
