I didn't understand beauty until I fell in love,
and then that's all I could ever see.
I saw it in chaos, and in destruction;
In scars and open wounds.
In heavily loaded one-word text messages
hey
and texts like love letters taking minutes that feel like hours to send.

I can feel love like a lemon being squeezed on a fresh cut,
and in the excruciating numbness of the dark silence.
I can feel it in those moments where I run out of breath,
and the ones where I breathe too much and hyperventilate and things
start
     to
          fade to
                 Black.

I didn't understand beauty until I fell in love,
and suddenly my pain was pleasure
and my anger was a soothing balm--
and everything was heartbreak
even singing our song.