The Casualties Of True Love

True love is not gentle, calm, or casual
It’s the harshest, most demanding, and arresting
Occurrence of the human experience
It tackles the heart with the force of a whisper
And in an instant can raze the landscape of your past
Sending tidal waves of pain, joy, doubt, and change
To wash over the loved ones of your former life
There will be casualties
Such a shift cannot happen smoothly and
Death cannot be avoided
There will be many deaths of a thousand different shapes and hues
Deaths of lesser loves and simpler lives
Of easy answers and unforgivable crimes
With the terrifying leap of faith into a world of true love
Comes the risk of disappointment and the inevitable
Severing of now unnecessary support lines
Frivolous interests and anything incapable of measuring up to love
I cannot claim to have been a saint or
Even to have acted respectfully to all involved
But I have acted out of love
Intermittently misplaced as it has been, is, or will be
And I know no other way to live but through a life of sacrificial love