Love Me, Please? / Ipsita Barik

We’re all craving a little bit of love. 
You see all around you, these beautiful people, 

In love with each other, 

Finding each other stunning 

Uplifting each other, 

A comfortable silence hangs around their presence 

As if all they need to be happy 

Is already beside them. 

I had a love like that one time. 

It made me feel butterflies in my stomach to look at him

Four years after we started dating. 

A horrible flutter in my heart that made me smile and weep and shout, 

But something that made me feel alive, 

Or at least, something. 

It made me feel like I had a purpose. 

And when that went to waste, 

I lost myself. 

See, here’s the thing about me. 

I have a lot of love to give. 

I am happy when I can love someone. 

For I don’t know how to love myself. 

And I see all these beautiful people around me

Who have all these beautiful people around them who love them so much 

And I am a little tortoise 

With a broken heart

Trying so desperately to hide in its broken shell. 

I crave love. 

And I, like a fool, will be one 

Who talks of heartbreak 

Who tells everyone

That they are lonely 

That they are sad

That they want someone to give a fuck 

To look at them and think that they are beautiful 

And not see all the ways they want to break them down. 

I want love. 

I want a simple, uncomplicated love. 

I want someone to love me. 

Please? 

I promise I won’t hurt you! 

I promise to love you a lot 

To cherish you, 

And look at you, 

Like they look in the movies. 

Please love me back?