The Love-Hate Conundrum

By Purti Sharma

I hate you more than I love you

You crashed into my life, a garden full of weeds

And upended it, plundered it with roses and daises

And the scent, it reminded me of you,

Even when I didn't want to remember you.

I hate you just as much as I love you

You showed me the things I had spent a lifetime conceal

You dared me to live a little more than I allowed myself to

You broke the lock that adorned the golden web I had spent my lifetime weaving on.

I hate you much less than I love you

You rooted in me the possibility of us

The hope of how we could be

Just to walk away in the name of keeping me safe

Don't you know, you took the lock away with you?

So I try and fail, and fail and fail endlessly,

To weave the golden to where it was rugged at your welcome

To uproot the roses and daises so that the weeds could grow again

Alas, I am too naive to understand the retribution for love

And now, with you gone, I realize, my life is an exile for just that.

By Purti Sharma