POETRY CONTEST WINNER: What is Love? By Yolanda Ifepe

Love,

It’s a concept I fail to comprehend,

When all I see are the broken pieces that people leave behind

They say “ To love is to be broken”

But how many times can a glass be shattered before it can never be put back together again? 

A love that leaves a residue of divorce, neglect and denial, 

A stench so smelly, it intoxicates our noses till we bleed out our brokenness all in 

the name of love 

So tell me, “Is love to be broken or does our brokenness drive our need for love?”

Love,

Does it hold the power to alter reality?

Yielding cheap bandages to “fix” the damage it’s caused in the past?

A disposable bandage that peels with the lightest touch of sorrow

Love, 

Is it a utopia?

An outdated tale of Cinderella waiting for a prince charming?

All I feel like is Rapunzel, trapped in a tower, 

Except there is no prince to save me from these boring hours. 

Why should I give up my independence for a charming prince that might not exist?

But I still wait… 

Each trial is worse than the last

Those three little words float to me and I snatch them

But before, I realize it is bait, it is too late

I am a fish that never learns, always getting snatched out of water

I swim in this toxic river, over and over again 

A river floated with fishes of personal gain,

Looking for a gullible fish to relieve their pain,

Fishers of emotional blackmail,

Bringing you up and kicking you down when you fail,

But when will I learn that fishers are tricksters, not lovers

Because once a fish is caught, there is no life for them beyond water

So, here we are again, back at the start? 

What is love?

Well, I still don’t quite understand it

But all I know is that I haven’t found it yet


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