Sweet as Candy: A Novel in Verse

Romance

Another change that has come with growing up

Is my view on love

Particularly of the romantic variety.

Though the world endlessly attempts to prove its existance to me

I’ve come to the conclusion that, if it is indeed real

It’s not for me.

Not that I mind.

I just might like it that way.

It’s a good way to sell Valentine’s Day cards, sure

And, sometimes

It seems to go right

Like with Izzy and her boyfriend, Alex

Who have been wading neck deep in love’s all-consuming waters since my freshman year.

The heart eyes they constantly make at each other tells me that Alex will pop the question any day now.

However, other cases have me convinced that it’s just too big of a risk.

My studies show that it has been known to go terribly awry

Baiting trouble and heartbreak

Like a worm on a hook.

Take my birth parents, for instance.

Though I had never seen my father in the flesh

The few words my mother had spoken about him conjured the image of a handsome prince in my young mind

With slicked-back dark hair

And blue eyes like mine.

My mother obviously loved him enough to make a baby with him

And he left her in the dust

Leaving she and said baby to walk on uncertain ground.

Not good.

The rest were stories of friends’ parents and romance novels

With quite an array of possible endings.

It was the love stories that ended sadly that stuck with me the most

Cautionary tales to remind me never to dare open the door for hurt.

I don’t think I’m doing that with Todd.

Not as far as my own feelings go, at least.

Todd is less than a fixer-upper.

He’s a wannabe punk

With staticky black hair and spotty stubble

Decorated with a liberal sprinkling of pimples.

He may be smitten with me

But I’m less than taken with him

Despite his pretty eyes and hot kisses.

We couldn’t fall head-over-heels for each other

So I’m a free agent.

Plus, you don’t need romance

To make the artificial kind of love

In the backseat of somebody’s black sedan.