Love is a mess
I said to my friend
She agreed, nodding her head
It’s disruptive, untidy and sometimes unclean
It will completely mess with your head

First you’re up
And then you’re down
It’s not like the fairy tales
Those sweet stories didn’t account
For the vagaries of male and female

And what about the pain we inflict
On the dear ones who we love
We do it so carelessly
Love doesn’t always feel sent from above

Sometimes it rises from the bowels of hell
It tears your soul in two
Before the next second lifting you up so high
And filling you through and through
With a lightness so golden
And so incandescent
You wondered how you did without
All its glory and boundless joy
It turns you inside out

Then there’s the errors
The plain misunderstandings
We don’t know how to correct
Instead we watch our lover unravel
Sometimes not even sure what we’ve said

We screw it all up
We throw love away
Even when we desperately want it
We crave another’s touch
Yet turn away
We think they couldn’t possibly want it

We’ll go out and sleep with so many others
Who’ll never come to close to our heart
Yet avoid talking to the one who does
For fear they’ll tear us apart

We’ll be struck down so maudlin
Then lifted so high
With hope coursing through our veins
Then in the next second we’ll plummet on down
And hit the dirt again

And for those who shake their heads
And say
Come now
Love is so simple
I challenge you to look at the truth, my friend
I know that love ain’t that simple

It twists and turns
Its trails unexpected
Sometimes rocky and sometimes so smooth
Just when you think you’ve got it all worked out
It’ll throw you out of your groove

Roller coasters, jumps
Endless joy and succor
You’ll feel like you can fly
Before explosions make you less secure
You might feel like you could die

But what you learn
Along the way
Is really so very delightful
Unconditional love looks at you
And doesn’t see the potential minefield
It cares not for the past
Or the challenges that have been
It sees only what is possible
The love within
The crazy impossible dream
It doesn’t believe anything’s impossible

It sees past your flaws
Those dents and grazes
You think are so very unsightly
Even when you feel like it’s darker than pitch
It still sees the sun shining brightly

Love is a mess
A glorious mess
And I’ll take it every day
Over the safety of living without, my friend
You know
I’ll take it every day