Valentine

That this day is but excuses and ruses,

Abuses of reasons for romantic notions

Now devoid of devotion, emotion, or more,

That this day stands empty of sentiments,

Missing the meanings that have defined its entire past,

Is to deny something more human

Than the nature to forget of our hearts.

When one listens now to the words that are spoken

About so much that stands as our world spins around,

We hear skeptics and cynics drive holes in the dreams

Of generations unknowing that their intentions were wrong.

That their hearts were mottled masks that hid what was true,

That what they were doing was not what they thought,

Rather simply they were sweetening their sour desires.

False, comes the cry from critics’ circles and squares,

Lies, say the masses supposedly aware,

But look once again. Look, look in the eyes,

Look into the lights that are incapable of hiding

What lies beneath, back, back to the brain,

Through these mist-wreathed portals one might see once again

What is held in our eyes as much as in others.

That we’ve forsaken our faith, not religion, but faith,

Our belief that our people can believe in the great.

Once our hearts had more hold, once our hearts cried out,

Gave us hope that each person would not do us wrong.

That’s where love thrives, in a world where belief

Holds far greater hold than our fearing of pain.

Where we are not guided by our reasoning brains.

This day’s meaning has become clearly clouded,

The light has fogged over, and something’s been lost,

What’s lost, however, is not the meaning of love,

What we’ve lost is the trust that we mean that we love.

Reservations and reasoning mar our once sturdy steel,

It weakens from scratches and scars so shadows congeal.

But we can rebuild, reclaim, and renounce,

Trust once more ourselves as well as all others,

Then the meaning will return and the chocolates and flowers,

Will no longer be hollow symbols of doubt and of fear,

Rather totems of time, that last as we last,

Markers that give meaning to our love and our past.

Maybe one day, these words will ring true,

They’ll last though they’re heartfelt, not reasoned through.