Requited Love

Keith Irwin

Requited love is like finding out that the ice cream store is giving away your favorite flavor for free every day. Requited love is like being a little kid in a big, big toy store. Requited love is like lying out in your front lawn in the clover all day. Requited love is like a really big teddy bear. Requited love is like realizing that you can fly after all. Requited love is like Christmas morning.

I love oddly. I have said it before. I will likely say it again. I do not know what loving normally is, but I know that I am not it. I speak only for myself. I want my love to be requited again.

Requited love is like waking up and realizing that it is a teacher workday. Requited love is like finding the new book in your favorite series in the library for the first time. Requited love is like finding the Fraggle hole beneath your bed. Requited love is like exploding. Requited love is like shivering and enjoying it. Requited love is like being unfrozen in freeze tag. Requited love is like finding a four leaf clover.

Have you ever tried to describe the indescribable? Have you ever heard something which made everything else sound like echos? Have you ever seen something which made everything else look like shadows? Have you ever felt something which made all your dreams seem real and all your realities seem like mid-afternoon dreams?

Requited love is having someone to tell the whole truth to. Requited love is being a confidante. Requited love is that look in the eyes which makes you think for just a moment that you are looking in a mirror. Requited love is the warm body against yours. Requited love is having someone to steal kisses from you. Requited love is feeling your heart beat. Requited love is not having to hold feelings back.

I have.

Requited love is like a long nights sleep after a hard day’s work. Requited love is like a revelation from your own personal God. Requited love is like a day lily. Requited love is like a long, long hug. Requited love is a big hammock. Requited love is like just after you land after jumping from the high dive. Requited love is like singing. Requited love is like one of those big rooms full of balls. Requited love is like birthday parties before age ten. Requited love is like winning the big stuffed animal in the game at the state fair. Requited love is like the top of the ferris wheel. Requited love is like having someone you care for fall asleep on you. Requited love is like knowing just where everything is.

Requited love is like not being afraid of the thunder and lightning anymore but hugging your teddy bear closer anyway.