When I was five years old, I asked you what love was
You told me one day Prince Charming would surely come.
Sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G was all the rage,
I asked again at thirteen and you told me, “boys only want one thing.”
I turned fourteen and experienced my first love
Hardship came through and we had to move away
“But, dad please! I swear he is the one.”
You then told me, “Don’t worry, Princess. He will come again someday.”
The rebellion age was amongst us and I assure you I would never be stupid
A few years later the devil decided to play cupid.
“He makes life feel like a dream”
You asked me then, “But can he cook and clean?”
I rolled my eyes for the first time and walked out the door of childhood
“If you don’t change those shorts you can walk to school!”
This was when we stopped talking.
I resorted to my own self destruction and serendipity
Then he was gone.
Seventeen never felt wiser, so it seemed—
I knew the world through the lens of defiance.
You started to shout, “What are you doing with your life!”
“I don’t know, dad! I’m trying to figure it out!”
Then there was this one special day.
I found him in the grey
When I walked through the class doorway.
He told me “Mockingbird” was his favorite Eminem song
And I smiled because it was mine too—
Not because it reminded me of love,
But because it reminded me of you.
“Dad, I don’t know how to describe him to you—”
Silence. Then it came,
“You’ve been bitten by the bug.”
That’s how I knew it was really true love.
