to understand love, you must first experience loss,
not the kind that makes you feel a little unhappy,
like losing a book you liked,
or having something eaten something you reserved for yourself,

no,
not that kind.

but that of losing something you felt you could not live without,
like air,
at once you were comfortable, and suddenly you are breathless,
almost dying.

to understand love, you must first experience betrayal,
to putt your innocent self into the hands of someone other than yourself,
to rely on them,
to depend on their protection,
and then to have them throw you away,
treating you like yesterday’s leftovers.

so that,
at first when you met them you were a child,
and by the day you leave them,
you have no innocence left.

to understand love, is to understand that
although nothing lasts forever,

you will not treat anyone the way you don’t like yourself to be treated.