When I Think of Love

by Ernie McCray

When I think of love,
I think of how
it has safely
taken me through
life’s dark clouds
and drowning seas
as well as through life’s joys
and well-earned victories;
I think of how love
has been sung
as “the only thing
that there’s
just too little of”
and being that that’s one thing
I’m truly certain of
I feel compelled
to speak to
all the madness
and sadness
I see to the right and left of me
in a society,
falling behind
in its ability
to create any kind
of rhythm and rhyme
as a killer disease
and tightly closed minds
eat away at the fabric
of who we could become
down the line
like piranhas gnawing away
at a catch on a fisherman’s line,
seeing, in my mind,
humankind’s
very survival in our hands
at this moment in time,
thinking we can only save ourselves
as lovers,
singing our love for each other
as a lullaby,
a balm
in our need
of calm,
as we right the wrongs
that have us
listing like a ship
that’s about to capsize,
off-balance
and weighed down
due to all the centuries
we’ve shucked and jived
and lied,
leaving promises
of liberty
for all lives
left high and dry,
denying ourselves
opportunities
to transform
this world
wherein love
is something
there’s just too little of,
into one
whereby love
is something
we just can’t get enough of.

Such is what my mind
gives rise to
when I think of love,
knowing that it can safely
take us through
life’s dark clouds
and drowning seas
as well as through life’s joys
and well-earned victories.

And do we ever need
a victory.