though you may feel the tug
into the small box of sadness
though you may curl up there
though you may feel
in all honesty
it’s your only choice
the only thing that’s true and real

though you have no desire to fight
and from that standpoint
you see no reason why you’d want to,
this is not the story for you to choose

Consider life, after all.
Then your despair, or if you quibble
with the term, your nihilism,
could not exist except as foil
to all you’ve ever loved —
to love itself — and yet that love
has no need of an opposite
to be itself

By which you see
the love alone is real,
and so you might as well relax
and let it shine.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 11, 2020