Love Has Eluded Me Poem by Chamanda Yvette

Love is elusive,
Far flung from me as the East is from the West.
The pain of the matter lies in the fact that East touches West ever so slightly at the fringes.
But the middle the core of their beings is a mystery one to the other.
How can the West ever walk in sunshine with the East?
How can the East ever gaze up in moonlight with the arms of the West around her?
They live together yet separately.
They know of each other but lack knowledge of each others intimacies.
West can imagine the sun glistening on the nakedness of the East,
But he can never see for himself the sweat that trickles in the secret places of her curves.
She doesn’t exist in the same space as he.
He doesn’t occupy the same time as she.
She knows he is there.
He knows she is there.
But they cannot be together – really together.
I have been given glimpses of love on the fringes of my life.
I have seen it on the faces of lovers sharing secret glances.
I have experienced its counterfeit cousin – lust.
But thus far love – true love – has eluded me.

(2009, United States)