Did my heart harden?
Or did it merely form
a scab upon its surface..
To help the raw
and vulnerable heal?
Or does experience
and age
indeed desensitize
our capacity..
to unapologetically,
truly feel?

Perhaps my
many failed attempts
at finding love..
left stronger of a mark
upon me
than I previously thought.
The sting
from letting go of love
not meant for me
still hurts,
don’t be mistaken..
I still feel something..
But just not a lot.

The greatest men
don’t agonize
over a lack of love..
perhaps this hardness
is what gives them strength.
To yearn and to believe in love
with boyish and sincere naïveté..
is what condemns young men
to boundless longing
and relentless chase.

Alas, love favors not
the yearning poets.
You cannot earn a love
not meant for you..
If you must try,
you’ll find reliably
that all your efforts
were in vain.
To try and fail, alas,
is no great tragedy..
In doing so
there still is much to gain.

In stepping on the same
ol’ rakes as many other men
before you did..
You learn a wisdom
that is only taught
through feeling pain.
The hardness of your myocardium
bestows a mark of manliness
upon you..
Heart’s strength, however,
is its greatest strain.