I’ve always found it funny that love is so closely associated with sex and romance. Those things are great (sometimes really great) and important in their way but I’ve always thought that love is something very different and much deeper. Love, for me, grows strongest when faced with the most challenge. Like an ancient old oak tree, lasting love is rooted in the mud and decay of life’s detritus – the stuff that generally we don’t like other to see. Our vulnerability, our fears and our weakness – it is through these that we find real deep connection, care and love for others. So here’s a story about that sort of love. It’s a very short one about a time that my wife and I had Giardia when staying in Kathmandu. We spent a number of days in our room, sharing a bucket, unable to stand, and we learned a lot about each other, and we learned a lot about love!
Love is not a rose
A field of morning dew
Love is not a stolen kiss
Or a far off sunrise view
Love is sitting on the floor
So sick we cannot stand
A bucket sat between us
In a far off foreign land
Love is folding back your hair
So that you can throw up
Slopping out the stinking bucket
Before we both fill it up
Love is sharing Giardia
And still sharing a smile
When six feet from the toilet
Might as well be sixty miles
Love is sharing everything
There’s no place to pretend
We only get one bucket
We must fill it from both ends
#lovepoem #relationships #spokenword #vulnerability
Add comment