A Note
to my angry, broken-hearted Niece,
because she thinks love sucks.

Love sucks?
Why, yes it does, when it goes wrong
It hurts and makes you cry.
It fills you with despair and hate
and makes you wanna die.
It brings you to your knees
and makes you wonder why
you even try.
And it will drive you mad.

It will cause you to believe
you should stay out of love
forever
and you’re never gonna let
that stupid feeling get into your life again.

Until it does.

It does… because the moment that you catch the eye
of someone special looking sideways
as you’re looking sideways too
the memory of pain will disappear.
As your heart begins to flutter
and your throat gets tighter too
and your palms begin to cool with sweat
and your tongue becomes all knotted
and speaks gibberish despite the fact,
you know just what you wanna say
but there’s this foolish little giggle
that keeps gettin’ in the way.

You try to push those feelings down,
But it makes no difference how you frown
‘Cause it won’t matter how you sound
you know inside you’re going down
’cause love will stick you in the ground.
And as your cheeks begin to flush
with warmth from who the hell knows where,
you’ll find that you’re in love again
despite the painful past despair,
You’ll breathe the purest air of airs
and every song you know, you’ll share
You’ll feel so kind and sweet and fair
You’ll smell each smell, you’ll see each hair
As time stands still.

But here’s a tiny secret truth,
escaping adults and the youth:
to keep that happy love alive
you have to feed it, make it thrive
just as it feeds and cares for you,
you have to give it something too.

That means that you must learn each day,
with things you do and words you say
just how to make that other
fall in love with you again.
For if you don’t,
or can’t
or won’t,
each day will be a sinking stone,
and, sure as hell,
for each of you
Love…will…suck.