Love’s Not Always Pink

Love’s not always pink–
It’s what you feel and live
not what you think.
Sometimes it’s what you give
or are allowed to take
or nothing you can have
for someone else’s sake.

Love’s not always song–
its voice not always heard
or clear and strong.
Sometimes it’s just absurd
and makes no kind of sense
Or it speaks without a word,
has neither rhyme nor tense.

Love’s not always glee–
It has its moods and swings
and doesn’t see.
Sometimes imaginings
turn into fear and doubt
or expectation clings
to aims that can’t play out.

Love’s not always true–
a permanent romance
to nourish you.
Sometimes it is mischance
or timing’s never right
or only fine in sunshine
or only in the night.

Love’s not always whole
but without its tricks and tides
neither is the soul.

_{2009 CL Redding}