If Roses are Red

If lilies are white as the light
that you shine,
As kind as the silence
our hearts entwine,
As bright and as blissful as
the grace of your gaze,
I'd like to recall you
for the rest of my days.

If roses are red as the rouge
in your cheek,
As perfectly pure
as the pledges you speak,
As fine and as fair and as
sweet as your smile,
As simply ascendant,
resplendent in style.

If pansies are dark as the hue
in your eye,
As smooth as your skin and as
soft as your sigh,
I solemnly swear and declare that it's true:

I love you.

—my best friend, who may have been a little more than that

Love is a little bit of a paradox. We say that love is universal but isn't every feeling of love completely unique in and of itself? The difficulty of feelings is that one cannot truly understand it unless one has gone through it. But at the same time, every person's experience is theirs and would be different than another's. 

No one can say that we are too young to understand what love is. If love was anything, it was this.

Love is not talking every day. It's not being each other's number one Snapchat best friend. It's not knowing every single song the other is obsessed with at every point in time. It's not having each other on the forefront of your thoughts every single day. It's not having albums of cute aesthetic pictures together in stock. It's not scheduling movies and outings and planning life adventures together. Yes, love can be all that, but it is not just that.

Love is wishing the best for him from a distance. It's hoping that he is happy with his new girlfriend. It's trusting that he still carries you with him—in a Shiba Inu meme on Facebook, a song on the radio, a cup of Cappuccino from that one coffee shop, your favorite go-to hangout spot. It's knowing that he didn't cast you away from his heart, but that you just have a different seat now. It's accepting that time doesn't turn back but forgiving him, forgiving yourself for how things turned out to be. It's being okay with the fact that you'll need to re-orient each other of the new developments in your lives since you last spoke. 

It's remembering, but it's also looking forward.

If love was anything, it is this.

Sincerely, Sab