Optical Illusion.

• 7th February 2017
• 0

 Escher, House of Stairs

Love and selfishness both want to keep you around.

But one does it for your happiness while the other do it at the expense of yours.

They both text you at 2 in the morning but while one might tell you that they dreamt about you, the other probably just want nudes.

One wants to see what’s beneath all that makeup, the other is more interested in what that dress is hiding.

Love shouts your name from mountaintops to anyone who would listen.

They wear your love on their sleeve, tattooed across their forehead to show you off to the world.

Selfishness calls you his dirty little secret, bestows it unto you like a title you should be proud of.

But dust his heart for fingerprints and you will find that of all the others he’d let inside.

Love doesn’t take prisoners but selfishness hands you a bar of soap and marches you into the gas chamber with the promise of a shower.

It asphyxiates, waterboards, forces you to choke on your own self-worth.

It reminds you that you are good enough to fuck but not quite good enough to date.

Love and selfishness see you for the storm that you are

but while one respects you for your graceful power, the other demands that you make yourself

smaller smaller smaller smaller smaller smaller

just to fit in hands that aren’t big enough to hold you.

They both hate to see you with somebody else.

But while selfishness might hate the thought of you belonging to another, they don’t really want you either.

They would hold you at arm’s length away, terrified that if you come too close you might see that they are human after all.

They would preach unattachment and that true love is about letting go but in truth, they just don’t have the balls to risk a broken heart.

Love and selfishness may tell you that they love you, make the same promises, take you on that euphoric high that you know so well.

But pay close attention. Don’t blink. Don’t be fooled by the sleight of hand – for kisses aren’t promises and gifts aren’t contracts.

Love and selfishness may look the same but don’t be fooled – they are not.