Poem: What makes love?

I wonder what constitutes love? Looking beyond science and society, and stripping them away, love is... continue reading.

Poem: What makes love?

What makes love?
If the gassy stars and the rocky moon
Are just dust, fire and embers
If just four elements make us
Just right enough to hold life
If our hearts are just muscles
That recycle and pump blood
If we were all living chemistry labs
Burning oxygen, aging to die
What makes love?

If we are just…
…Soldiers of discipline
Soaked in our daily routines
…Slaves of our commitments
Bills, salaries and taxes
…Saviors of our blood and
Those we elaborately wed
…Strangers to this world
Searching for peace
What makes love?

When we strip our titles
Rip away the relations
Cut through the clutter
Social, familial and others
Remove the masks we wear
The garbs that conceal
What remains is your heart
That holds your love, for a start.

Love is just a drop of you
That makes the ocean out of me
Love is when I am paralyzed
In your enamoured presence
Love is when I write poems
In your ensconced absence
Love is when I lose my head
But my heart beats just right
Love is the elixir for my eternity
Or just the reason for my existence.

~Ashok Subramanian © 2024

“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones