Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, so it’s time for this blog’s yearly tradition of posting a poem. Next week there may be a prose take on the same topic.

You’ve heard love stories like Oliver’s, I’m sure.
Meeting that childhood sweetheart
In the back room, with the garden view
And trust that, with a wink, the parents may regret.
Stories tungsten-milled
To fit our expectations.

And you’ve heard wilder stories
From genuinely riskier lives.
The rescue and the love linked under the Milky Way
Like an action movie.
The love’s reality, even so,
Defying summary.

You’ve heard stories of wide-eyed students
Realizing they can be adults.
Of those moments in study or celebration
Turning points in self-conception.
And maybe you don’t ask
About the other times.

Love happens,
And we love love to happen.
But we build love too.

May that which we build 
Outgrow the story.