Talk About Love Poem by Paige Nielsen

There's no way to be ready
for what life will give you.
They say love is blind,
but it has 20/20,
and it'll make you bleed.
Sex and blood; smoke and mirrors;
one gigantic mirage,
causing bewitched dreams and shrink appointments.
It'll hurt everyone with no discrimination:
geeks and goths and prom queens.
Making the first shoot up the school,
the second die on their bathroom floor,
and leaving the third pregnant, disgraced, alone.
It's relentless
scratching at your window, tapping at your door.
You can't resist; it'll wear you down.
A fistful of ammunition won't stave it off.
Epic or shorter than a sunset,
glimmering in its ethereality.
Sweet as candy or sharp as needles,
maybe both.
A lullaby to sleep or an anthem to awaken,
perilous lies and big fat weddings-
stupid 'bridezillas'.
No wonder half of all marriages end in divorce.
My parents, your parents, everybody.
Manic invasions into your heart,
butterflies in your stomach,
clouds in your mind.
How do we dare risk it?