The Monday Poem is brought to you by Jim Gormley of the English Department. Enjoy!

If I Fall in Love With You

Jessica Semaan

If I fall in love with you

I will idealize you

But this time I will be aware and journal about it

I will write you poems and letters

But this time I will be sure to let you know, you are not the first to inspire

I will want to spend every waking and sleeping minute with you

But this time, I will sit alone with the craving as I breathe

I will want to share with you all my dreams, fears, hopes and wounds

But this time, I will share most of it with my therapist instead

I will want to tell the world about you, make you my +1s to weddings

But this time, I will tell a few until the intensity passes

I will compare you to my ex lovers

But this time, I will stop myself because you are not them

I will project on you what my parents did not give me

But this time, I will talk to you about it when I do

I will take forever to be intimate with you, because it scares me

But this time, I will overcome this fear and allow our intimacy to be

I will show you the bright side of me, and bury my shame

But this time, I will bring in the shadow in the room too

I will run away from you when hurt, and confuse you

But this time, I will sit there and ask for what I need

I will promise not to repeat the above mistakes I have done

But this time, I will make them mistakes and forgive myself

If you fall in love with me

What would you do?

Jessica Semaan is a Lebanese poet who writes about, “love, life and what we are scared to talk about. Always from the heart.”

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