Love Is: A Poem inspired by the Love of Carl and Pilar Zuniga-Brown

Love is
Waking up in the morning
Next to that special someone
Looking into their eyes
Its morning breath
And scratching ass
And stale farts under the covers
And throwing all that out the window
For some morning
Smooches, snuggles and that other S-Word.

Love is
Text messaging
Thinking of u
Miss u
Luv u
Need you
Want you
Don’t forget
To buy toilet paper
Or soy milk
Or please pick up some tampons for me
Or we have dinner with so and so tonight
With the inevitable response
Why can’t we just be together and forget that dinner?

Love is
Short phone calls with kissing smacks
At the end
“you hang up”
“no, you hang up”
“I love you more”
“No, I love you more”
and throwing up in your mouth
just a little bit
when anyone but you does that.

Love is
Living with other people’s messes and quirks
Its loud burps
And vegan gas
And shower drain hair
And short and curlies on the toilet seat.
Its silly dances in underwear
Or nakedness
Your choice, we don’t judge.

Love is
Car singing
And not making too much fun
When they get the words wrong
Its listening to the music they like
Sometimes
And watching their shows
Sometimes

Love is
Learning to eat tofu
Or giving up pork
Even though it tastes so sweet
Its about trying new things
And liking some of them,
But respecting when your amor
Spits it out or makes that face
And says,
“I’ve tried it and I just don’t like eggplant.”

Love is
Friendship and family
Its introducing them
To your dirty uncle
Your ex-con cousin
Your drunkard friends
Or your over protective roommates
Its acceptance of all of them
As long as they are supportive
Of the Love you two share.

Love is
Changing the things you can and want to
About yourself
Without changing who you are.
Its about taking
The good, the bad, the ugly
The beautiful, the nasty, the sweet
And wrapping it all up
With recycled paper of course
And exchanging that gift
Its give and take
Surprises and all
Its embracing each other
Its laying it out on the table and saying,
“Love Me,
As much as I Love You.”