Love doesn’t look like
bodies painted red, purple, and blue.
It doesn’t look like drunken intimacy
at 3am where the name
being whispered, is not your name.
It doesn’t look like dishes broken
against floors that
were clean seconds before.
It doesn’t look like wallpaper
(your skin)
peeling.
Love doesn’t look like
invalidation disguised as understanding;
like manipulation
attacking you, filling your heart
with self doubt.
It doesn’t feel like
tip toeing over shattered glass.
It doesn’t feel like quiet
hyperventilation; breaths shallow.
It doesn’t feel like throats burning;
tears being choked back.
Love doesn’t feel like fear.
It doesn’t feel like constant hiding.
It doesn’t feel like enslavement.
Love doesn’t feel like you’re going to die.
Love…feels like sunshine;
sometimes it’s hard but you
find comfort in knowing…
you’re safe.
