To Know Love Like This: A Poem About Friendship, Isolation, and Finding Your Way Back

To know love like friendship
Is what inspired my break from a relationship where there was no love

Not directly
Because I had to remember
That I knew love like friendship

Maybe you don’t know what it feels like to be in a relationship
where there is no love
But you were first convinced there was
You’re isolated from friends
You’re alienated from family
And sometimes, it’s not obvious

Sometimes, it’s subtle words
And seemingly unintentional actions,
Like…

They’re not real friends, look how they don’t include you
They like your siblings more, look what they do for them
They don’t love you, you have to force them to be around
Let’s not go there
Let’s not do that
Look at how they looked at you
Look at how they ignored me

And after years of subtly

You slowly

Forget

To know love like friendship

And then you have to remember

That your friends are your backbone when your back is against a wall
Your friends are your voice when your cords are tangled
Your friends are your brain when your heart is confused
Your friends are your riders when your feet are bound,
your wheels locked,
your horses down

Your friends have loved you long before any man faked that he did

Your friends have been battle-tested and endured
Your friends have been through the fire and insured

To know love like friendship
Is to question how you ever believed that the fake love you were offered was real anyway

To know love like friendship
Is to understand the advice “be friends first”

Because to know love like friendship
Is a gift
Is a joy
Is to never settle for anything less again

A response to: https://www.instagram.com/p/DF731UnO7Se/