Love's Demands And Conditions Poem by Raj Dronamraju

I couldn't love you if you already had children by another partner
And
I couldn't love you if you smoked cigarettes
And
I couldn't love you if you had bad skin
And
You couldn't love me if you knew where I'd been

You couldn't love the stingy moment
The chain store exile of two income stability
The love on a rooftop overlooking the town's refuse dump

The demands of two people - Only one has spent his whole life fighting hypocrisy
The fussy secrets come out but only when you don't care at all for the other person
In the cocktail lounge, competing checklists both have far too many X's

You couldn't control what you couldn't love and vice versa
And
You couldn't put your phone away even for five minutes
And
The text you were waiting for came much later in the evening when you were no longer so sure of yourself