what's wrong? i ask my sister.
she is fifteen, today her eyes showed the darkest colors
of the normal
light blue sky.

love, she mutters slowly. it hurts.
i shake my head, and laugh.
i am eighteen. before, my eyes used to be the colors
of a storm in the sea.

how is that funny? she asks.
her voice cracking- tears escaping.

that is not love, i smile.
my eyes twinkling, like the stars of a wonderful night.

yes it is, she groans. it hurts. it must be love.
her eyes, now twinkling too.
but it wasn't twinkling like mine.
it was twinkling with unhappy tears.

when i was sixteen, i start.
i thought i knew what love was too.
i had the same thing you had in this
messy little mind.

but no. it was affection. it was not love.
affection, honey, i looked at her, is when you think you love someone.
you call them yours and they call you "mine".
affection is when you hope that they will love you only.
that you will not share them.
that you are happy, with them.

love, is when you let them call someone else, "mine"
only if it makes them happy.

love, is when you will share them with someone else
only if it makes them happy.

love, is when you try to stop loving them
only if it makes them happy.

then how do i know it's really love? she asks, finally, her tears slowing down.

i smile, my eyes twinkling again.
*when their happiness means
more than yours