Love Poem: Unlearned Love
Jonathan J. Avatar
Written by: Jonathan J.

Unlearned Love

Emotions are small. 
Emotions are still. 
Or so I’ve learned as a matter of will. 

Because when emotions were tall
When I gave it all and had my fill
The highs and lows burned; so quiet emotion became my skill. 

I learned restraint and guard 
Learned to fake all things hard. 
Learned loads to unlearn on later roads. 

Attitudes change with understanding and life’s range.
Learning love became easy when purely showed. 
Working wildly to become this new love is strange. 
Absences have done their work and I no longer feel.
You’ve filled the gaps: you’ve led me to heal. 
Soul and song, head and heart, you’ve won from me in the deal. 

Confidence instilled in me now
Overwhelming evidence of an unwavering bond. 
Matchless and marvelous are you, my love
Even if you cannot always see how. 

Babbling words cannot explain; but I’m able in a vow. 
Amnesia would be a pain; that magic memory wand. 
Calling my memories away alone could not get rid of 
Knowledge of you and keep me away somehow. 

I have failed to love; that is in the past. 
I would crawl over broken things--dreams, glass—for this to last. 
Losing memory of you would surely fill me with sorrow. 
But I’d never stop trying to come home til tomorrow.