Stripping down without showing skin

Nothing

Where does the love go when it runs out? When does it leave? Why does it die?

Do you kill it in one violent blow?

Or is it a million unattended, unhealed little cuts and scratches?

What do I know about love?

Everything

It creeps into my chest, uninvited and untameable

I know love has no mercy on anyone, rich, poor, independent codependent, confident, insecure

It'll bring you to your knees - if you did it right

What I know for sure about love is that you never come out of it the same

The other person is a chemical and I am a chemical and we both will come out as different people than when we met

I know when you're in love, kissing is everything

Because words aren't the only way to tell someone how you feel

I know when you fall in love you feel like you're the first and only two people in the world

Every kiss, every touch, every caress is like something you feel nobody has ever felt before

And you think - has everybody that's fallen in love before just walked around this nonchalantly the whole time?

You're at a restaurant with your friends and you can feel it, this

secret under your tongue

Burning like fire

But sweet

And it creeps up to your cheeks and makes you smile

And suddenly you look down and you see your heart's veins reaching, reaching, clinging to someone else's heart

I've learned a lot about love in my 20s, but not enough to maintain any control in the face of its power

And for every new thing I learned, there was something else I couldn't understand

All I know is love changes you

If you're lucky, to something better

What I know for sure is falling in love with life itself makes an artist out of everyone

I thought I was making art before

Now I want my life to be the work of art

And my songwriting to be the camera that I take a picture of it with

It's what I'm living

That's the art

What do I know about love?

Maybe nothing

And that's why it's everything