Love Is a Chemical Change

By Keerthana K

Love is a chemical change—

It is irreversible.

It cannot be undone; it remains,

Like grey embers of your heart

After love cremated it

And tore your soul apart.

That is, if you’re not lucky.

But if you’re one of those few

Having fortune on their shoulders,

Then love is the morning dew

That coats flowers before the sunrise.

It is one fleck of dandelion threads

That fly to you at dusk,

While the meadows act like your bed.

Love’s warm hands close your eyes,

And it kisses you on the forehead

And wraps around you tightly—

On the cold terrace,

Where you gaze at the night sky—

And stars.

Love is the beam of starlight

That flows through the rails of a prison cell.

Love is where you go to hide in despair,

Like the snail does with its shell.

But love is not periodic,

Nor is it constant.

Love is not time, love is not rain,

Love is not the sun or the moon.

Love—whose return can never embrace

The coils of certainty.

A paradox is what it is.

For the fragile human heart so easily

Places hope in the most uncertain of places.

Love is a hearth—

One I cannot keep extinguished for too long.

But while the fire is alive,

I hope the wood doesn’t burn out.

By Keerthana K