"I don't know when love became so elusive.."

"What I know is, no one I know has it.

My father's arms around my mother's neck.

Fruit too ripe to eat.

A door halfway open,

when your name is just a hand I can never hold

everything I have ever believed in becomes

magic.

I think of lover's as trees,

growing to and from one another 

searching for the same light.

My mother's laughter in a dark room,

a photograph greying under my touch.

This is all I know how to do,

carry loss around until I begin to resemble

Every bad memory

Every terrible fear

Every nightmare

anyone has ever had.

I ask: did you ever love me?

You say "of course, of course,"

so quickly you sound like somebody else.

You cry on the phone.

My stomach hurts.

I let you leave,

I need someone who knows how to stay.."

-Warsan Shire