Relationships · Love-Smitten

Billions of Times, Every Year. Or More.

By Dave Tebo · February 2025

Dave hates watered-down things: yuck soup but love stew, yuck creamy peanut butter but give him extra crunchy with whole peanuts thrown in. The food imagery is deliberately concrete, a manifesto for love with grit rather than wishy-washy sentiment.

When the couple tangles, they hustle to mend. Should love be a fragile egg or a well-worn Bible carried everywhere, its page corners tattered and stained? Positive Love Poetry chooses the latter: durable, honest, and ending with mouths grabbed for a kiss.

As I’ve said before, I hate watered-down things in all manner of existence: yuck soup; but I love stew; yuck pho; but I love com or bun; yuck creamy peanut butter; give me extra crunchy! Throw some whole peanuts in. yuck wishy-washies; give me someone humble, who innocently insults me with the truth. Give me love with grit, the ups and downs, hellfire and the heaven, the peace of respite. You and I have tangled, and each time have slunk sheepish. We hustle to mend our love. Should we approach our love like a fragile egg or a well-worn Bible carried everywhere, its personage a lumpy mass of tattered page corners and unexplainable stains? You and I grab each other’s mouths and begin to kiss.