There is No

There is no 

love 

without 

grief, 

my darling. 

How can 

you say 

you have 

loved 

if your heart 

has not 

broken, 

once, 

twice, 

a hundred times? 

Loving 

anything means 

opening yourself 

up to be 

hurt 

by it, 

but without the 

pain, 

how would 

we know 

that the 

love 

was true? 

I am still 

grieving you, 

even on days that 

I wake 

to find a 

smile tucked 

into my cheeks.