How Can I Love You?

How can I love you?

When love wasn’t exactly

What I grew up on

It was more like words

Of trauma, fear, anxiety

These are the things

That got passed along

How can I love you?

When all I’ve ever known

Was pain

My father

Countless men

Come and gone

Come back

And gone again

How can I love you?

When I don’t know myself

I get lost in someone else

Trying to please them

And make sure I keep them

Around to better

My esteem of self

How can I love you?

When love has failed me over

And over again

Trying to find that balance

Between lover and friend

I constantly can’t stop thinking

About the end

How can I love you?

How?

I suppose I try my best

Just like you

Maybe if we continue to try

Love might come easy

Between us two!