How could I not?

Considering what it is to love,

Why would I not?

How, among these people

could there be any reason —

Any reason not to love them?

Would I 

not love them 

because of their pain?

would I 

not love them 

because of their wounds,

and how they carry themselves

shielding what is vulnerable?

would I 

not love them

because of the way they’ve found

to move in the world —

what they use to feed their hopes,

and their patched-together life-rafts of the things

that let them know that they are worthy?

Or how they talk, or how they look, or how they smell?

No.  There is no reason not to love them

No reason not to throw the cloak of caring

over their shoulders

and wrap them in the fabric of my presence 

and be there for them.  Whenever.

Considering what it is to love,

How could I not?

For to love is what defines us

and love is what we are.

©Wendy Mulhern

June 13, 2012