over the years
I have gotten
pretty good at falling
in and out of love
until you
when I was four and sat on Scott Stoke’s lap
to open my birthday presents
I fell in love for the first time
but he was forgotten a year later
when Matt Mantis
proposed to me
in front of the whole kindergarten class
and I said yes
then, when David Cassidy
became Keith Partridge
my heart was stolen anew
but Scott Benjamin
stole it back in third grade
and kept it through fifth
Terry Butcher won my heart twice
once in ninth grade
and again just before the pandemic shut it down
at the Nature Center David won my heart
on a star-filled night
one summer home from college
and kept it for
an eternity
then Briggs
swept in and claimed it boldly
and held it for decades
on end
weaving a family and marriage
and friendship together with love
but it wasn’t till you
that falling in love
would happen instantaneously
and falling out of love
would prove to be
quite literally
impossible
perhaps if I stop trying
it might happen one day
eventually
when I least expect it
and one day
I might find that
being in love with you
has patina-ed into
loving you forever
