Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast
Love can be labeled
Love cannot be quantified
Love is platonic
romantic
sexual
familial
physical
emotional
spiritual
communal
Love is care
Love does not pertain to time
nor cares about distance
nor dimensions
Love is not clear
Love is a fluid
ever changing but there
Love is a gas
filling up as much space as it can
Love is a plasma
unfathomable
Love is a solid
A scaffolding of support
Love hurts
Love is scary
Grief is love
“What if grief if not love persevering?”
Love is connection
Even if only for a moment
Love is connection
even after it’s severed
Love is connection
walking each other home
wanting to spend as many moments with friends before sleep overtakes you
Love is choice
Love is respecting boundaries.
Love is making boundaries
trying to keep people in your life.
accepting that love can be conditional
Love is respect
Love is communication of what respect means
Love is communication
Even when you are afraid
Love is honesty
even when it hurts
Speaking directly with tact and care
Love is knowledge
Love is learning
Love is listening
Love is letting others make their own choices
even if the choice is to leave you behind
Love is letting go
not holding hostage.
Love is trying
Love is trying to do better.
(Love is checking yourself before you wreck yourself.)
Love is emotional management
Love is trying not to go off like a bomb
Love is not hiding yourself
Love is the mortifying or deal of being known
Love is wanting to be known
Love is wanting to know
Love is acceptance
Love is feeling safe
Love is not walking on eggshells.
Love is making sure they feel safe.
Love is providing safe harbor.
Love is keeping one another
Love is not worrying about how long they will be in your life
Love is the point
Connection is the point
Nothing matters
So what matters to you?
Love is for others.
Love is for yourself.
Love is finding the balance
So you are not drowning
In others or yourself
Taking time for yourself
So you can be with others
Love is accepting that sometimes balance is not possible
And recognizing how long you can handle that
Without losing yourself
Love is resistance
of capitalism who calls on you to only love profit
Love is resistance by building community
Love is keeping others safe too
Even if you don’t know them well
Love is believing others will take care of you to their capacity
Love is taking care of yourself
Resetting yourself
so you don’t burn out
Love is resisting a system that is trying to burn your out
Love is forgiving yourself when you do burn out
Love is defending others
Love is believing yourself
Love is hurting others temporarily so they are happier in the long run of life
“Life is too short and love is too long”
Love is long
Love is bigger than your body
Love is more than you can imagine
Love is your ancestors who prayed for you
who thought of you without knowing your name
nor you theirs
Love is your descendants you pray for
you strive to do better for
who you think of without knowing their names nor them yours
Love is infinite
attention is not
Love hurts
Love heals
Love sucks
Love is desperate
Infatuation is desperation and dislikes boundaries
Love is kindness turning others beautiful
Love is kindness
Love is not letting lust take control over care
Love is permission
Love is enthusiastic consent
Love is wanting to eat them
Love is wanting to feed them
Love is wanting to provide a roof over their head
Love is wanting your cells to integrate to share pieces of each other
Love is wanting your atoms to touch
to get past the illusion of touch
Love is napping together
Love is cuddling
platonically or otherwise.
Love is laughing together
Love is crying together
Love is going on little adventures
even if it’s only to the grocery store.
Love is wanting to be together
even if it’s only talking in a parking lot until 2 AM
Love is making friends at 4 AM.
Love is inside jokes
And excited to make new ones with new friends
Love is choice
Love is friendship
is inclusive
is including them even if you don’t think they’ll come
Love is not blood-based
Love is chosen family
even if it excludes blood relatives
Love is caring about others more than the values that call on you to hate them
Love is considering you might be wrong.
Love is being open
Love is not religious
Love can be spiritual
Love is connection
Love is chemical
Love is not caring that it’s chemical
Love is not only chemical.
Love is bonding
Love is healing
Love is sharing
Love is knowing when to say no
Love is not bleeding yourself dry
nor asking the same of others
Love is not resentment.
Love isn’t holding grudges
As satisfying as they might feel
Love is forgiveness
Especially so you do not hold the hurt anymore
trying not to give them power to hold that corner of your heart
Love is what you can forgive
Love is what you can give
Love might be writing a poem about love and not knowing how to order it
recognizing the irony of trying to explain love in a two-dimensional medium
knowing it is a work that will always be incomplete
But still wanting to do justice to a friend asking “What is love?”
Colochos de Flores 