The Alcohol Called Love
written by: Wisdom Adediji
Love begets madness, so I gulp a bottle
of L²o— (chemical formula for love)/
& I’m contrite for drinking the alcohol called love//
for I’m love drunk & I tried to be a boy/
but her smile is a knife that unwinds butterflies
from my stomach & replaces them with moths/
Her skin is a smooth road towards tenderness/
& it metaphors the colour of dusk/ I am
fading into the homeostasis of her beauty/
but what is it called when you love & you’re not loved back?/
is it an irony for Romeo & Juliet?/ maybe there’s no euphemism for that//
They say love is like the rain/ It waters the sweetness
of sugarcane & the acridity of a bitter leaf// love—
for it reopens my wound & calls it scabbing/
it drowns me in fire & calls it baptism/
it sweeps me into storms & calls it cleaning//
- The Alcohol Called Love - June 9, 2022
