You asked, what does love mean to me?

"LOVE ME",
tell yourself
"I love myself"
"I am myself"
"I love being myself"

HE taught you self-hatred and denial
that is not the life YOU will lead.

REAL LOVE
is mutual caring, respect, honesty, truth;
being able to be your whole self with someone else.

I AM LOVEABLE!

NOTHING THAT WAS DONE TO ME COULD MAKE ME OTHERWISE.

I loved you, because I knew no other way of being.
I've felt the power of being loved,
and now the absence of it
shakes me life with terror.

How will I love again?
Will I ever love again?

Do not ask these questions of yourself;
ask yourself,
"At what point did it become so impossible to love myself???"

I fell in love with you
the first time
you looked into my eyes,

such expressive eyes,
a mind exploding with creativity.

A body also so familiar with the constant
presence of pain.

I knew in touching you I needed to be so delicate;
always afraid of going overboard,
never coming up for air.

I can't forget your taste or your touch.
I don't want to.

What you and I did together,
and what I showed you,
was so different,
from what he did to me.
Today he is this unwelcome presence that tells me
"YOU'RE NEVER ENOUGH"
That I am no one,
unless I can see myself
reflected in the eyes
of someone who loves me.

Who am I?
When this mirror breaks and I am surrounded by self-hatred.

I am no one but myself.
Always have been, always will be.