Mundane Love

Image Courtesy: Nora Gerliczy, Pratt Institute

I knew love in my roommate's kitten and in

the "thank you's" of customers that are scribbled 

at the bottom of receipts and even in the half-drank beer

on my bathroom counter. I thought I knew it in 2018

and once more in June 2023 and I now realize that

I have known it every day that I've walked this Earth

and it was never the absence of love being received

but more so that some days I have not given it back

and this has made all the difference.

There's love in sleepless nights with friends and lovers

 and there's love all the same in getting a full lone eight hours

because there is so much love in moderation itself.

There's love among the four walls of my childhood home,

even when I feel they are too small for the “me” I have become.

There's love in the baby grand which I use to drown out the

 noise with and there's love in my father's luminous laugh, because noise

doesn't have to mean unrest and there can be love in the boldness too.

I think love sometimes tastes like a vodka cran and

sometimes like fresh blueberries and sometimes like

the medicine your roommate gives you when you feel unwell.

They say love is patient and they say love is kind,

but love can be brutal and it will sometimes burn the tip of your

tongue as if you’ve just sipped a too-hot cup of chamomile tea.

Love will squeeze you; love will burst you into flames,

but it will always find you when you need it most. 

Even when the world is crumbling, you will stand

under a mauve sky and take a breath of relief

and love will look you in the face and offer you a pair of rose-colored glasses.

There is love in the stillness. There is love in the

racing repetitiveness of everyday life. There is love in blindness.

There is love in you seeing right through me.

There is love in your best friend saving you a seat.

There is love in a drunk kiss. There is love in finding

yourself high above the jet stream as you leave it all behind.

There's love in you telling me yes.

There's love in you telling me no.

There is so much love in moderation itself.

Strike Out,

Writer: Sarah Bourloukas

Editor: Blake N. Fiadino

Tallahassee