How long before I knew love?

A word thrown about so easily in my youth

Oh, I meant every word of it -at the time,

but what did I know?

A passion to take off my clothes?

A desire to heal some transient hurt?

A need to hold on to someone, that they not leave my live completely?

All this, yes…

and more…

comforting the sister of a lost friend…

perhaps my first experience with love

The pieces of love I left behind,

so cavalierly in my youth

weren’t the ones I thought they were…

oddly, just the reverse.