Love Poem: Broken Vow
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Written by: Harriet Malinga

Broken Vow

It is love that you promise
Here you are,
Incapable of loving to cherish 
The type who kiss and tell
You look deep inside each other’s eyes
reciting the words
“to have and to hold, till death do us part”
The same words you know you will not keep
You say them any way

You offer her flowers
roses to be precise,
Although they smell sweet,
they also have thorns
With your inability to place value 
your paths shouldn’t have crossed 
Saying words to each other that you do not mean
Bringing suffering untold

You want happiness
But you cause each other sadness.
It is not a default setting
You need to be intentional
You both showcase ignorance
At any given occurrence 
You have only learnt violence
and lack of tolerance

You break each other’s heart
You both end up hurt
You build a house and fail to make a home
Trying to replace love with material possessions
your inability to provide a safe place 
While it is always within reach
Instead of finding answers
You seek solace elsewhere

You want to create memories together
but create misery for each other 
You make absence preferable to presence
because you cannot stand each other’s existence
resorting to fill the void with violence
causing irreparable damage
and more brokenness