LOVE'S DUALITY AND DUPLICITY

I get lost in your embrace
and when I leave I’m so sad,
but when you get on my case,
I’d move to Mars when you’re mad.
I could dive down forever
into the pools of your eyes,
but it you think me TOO clever
you could crush me with your thighs.
My life loses its luster
when I’m gone for a few days,
but it’s all bluster
when I fight to get away.
The duality of love
can make me quiver
with anticipation
and make me shiver
with mortification.
I love you.
I’m afraid OF you.

Either sex could compose this poem. It’s an equal opportunity diatribe because love and hate and fear are three sides of the same coin. That coin is the infamous three sided quarter of Carthage that fit in the triangular slots of the Sparkling Sea Water vending machine dispensers. After 12 dozen dehydration deaths they switched to spring water. But I digress and must move forward with my mission of love today.
Falling in love is a tumble toss dive into heaven. You soar and swoop like there’s a hawk in your head. A first love in fifth grade is better than being the top scorer for all the games in the arcade with your initials first on the game screens for everyone to see.
Being in love is like catching lightening in a Yoo hoo bottle. You’re afraid of being burned and hope that it doesn’t shoot back out again. It can go as fast as it came and that’s the fear factor. (Note to self. Fear Factor is a great name for a sleazy reality TV show.)
Once you say “I love you.” you’ve given your beloved the power to use it or lose it to someone else. This is the “everybody can be replaced” fear. Your best friend could quickly become your worst enemy if he takes off with your girl, wowing her with his tetherball skills on the playground at recess. He’s a better hitter and may have fewer baby teeth than you, making him more mature.
Once you’re committed to a relationship, you have to take the loved one as a whole, and not just for the good days. That can be scarier than an American werewolf in London. By day all sweetness and light, but at midnight all hairy and killing everything in sight.
How do you cope with this duality? With love and fear you weather the stormy days and go sailing on the balmy days. Both of you hide your true selves in duplicity while dating, until you’re hooked, landed, gutted and fried for dinner, then it’s too late.
Next you get married and share all your secrets in drunken ramblings and sleepy time pillow talk confessions. Crimes and misdemeanors can spill out, but they can’t be used against you in a court of law. Fear of prosecution has kept many a couple together.
So let’s recap. When you love someone you’re also afraid of it all ending somehow. And if they turn on you when you’re lying asleep on your back, well… Does a shark find swimmers tasty? And finally guys, if you’re a good tetherball player, you can get all the girls.