A poem inspired by sonnet 116 by Shakespeare
“Love is not love”

For I cannot seem to comprehend, nor want to try
To understand how awkward men live and die
Bound by a force so vile, by a force so weak
Tremors ache in the heart while grown men weep

O how I wish my thoughts were left to enslave
Whipped until they bled your precious name
Whipped until they rang, yet again
Whipped until they were…sane

The sweet cry of a virgin as her man’s heart is undone
Screaming at the altar “love is not love”
For if love was love the moon would not drag the sea close
And the beauty that is in the eye of the beholder, would not be his eyes alone

Yet love still stands, even if it stands alone
A time-less compass leading to the soul
And I have been and oh, how I have known
A love so thin it chills me the bone
Yes, if I’m wrong then so and let it be
But I know no man living that ever loved me