dedicated to.

i think we settle too easily these days,
because we search for acceptance and
find it, sometimes,
and sometimes get lost along the way.
Make a short detour and end up drunk and singing off-key.
and that's just looking for acceptance, not love.
(Everyone thinks they're looking for someone else
to love them unconditionally.
But it's not true.
What we want, what we truly want
and what we are always looking for
and what we can never resist,
is the feeling of loving ourselves.
The problem is that we can't remember how,
and need someone else to do it first.)
We look all the harder
because we want it so much more.
We go farther and faster before realizing
we've made a wrong turn.
and the playing field becomes a marketplace
and people bargain and barter.
Knock down each other's prices,
look over new merchandise,
wear each other down.
But it doesn't work.
Because if you sell a gasp of breath for love,
you hate the walls that see you do it.
And when we make our smiles bright and shiny
we fall victim to the magpies,
but we shine brighter still after the thievery and lies
because we have a lie to perpetuate.
Because we hope no one will ever know.
And we hold on to what we have given away,
because it would be worse to let go.