Love

We’ve got love all wrong 

we put it in boxes

something that cannot be constrained 

and we try to own it 

like an animal

and put our name 

around its neck on a collar

parading it through the streets

to enhance our value 

in the eyes of others. 

Pinning it into place in our collection 

of romantic 

or platonic 

or sexual

or familial  

with a metal spike in the heart of it 

to keep it safely possessed

when it can only live unbound

and free of our influence 

like the wind as it travels 

through the leaves.

You think that you can 

own the river 

have the title deed in your possession

post signs to prevent trespass

but you are mistaken

the river will outlast 

each of us 

and when we are gone 

it will continue to run

from the headwaters of the heart. 

So it is with love 

the eternity of it 

travels over us and only 

if we are fortunate 

can we drink from the quick current

because we cannot possess it 

although it can possess us.

Three of Swords from the Rider–Waite tarot deck

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_of_Swords#/media/File:Swords03.jpg