Is This Love? Poem by Roshni D'Souza

A word under whose weight, we rise or crumble.
A path along which star-crossed lovers stumble.

In whose name, battles are lost and won.
Under whose shadow, empires come undone.

For whose sake, lives, we sacrifice.
With enough imagination, even believe our own lies.

Interactions considered innate in base animals,
We have called 'love' and drawn parallels.

We classified as conjugal, paternal, maternal,
Fraternal, and of course, let's not forget eternal.

Yet elusive and evasive, in what it might truly represent,
We who convince ourselves most loved, seem most content.