A Life Worth Living for the Aromantic Soul

the email in my inbox says:
“Why you should fall in love”
10 reasons to have yourself
a lovely little romance
even if your heart has been broken
one too many times
darling, open yourself to the world!

You can make the impossible possible
everything and everyone is impossible,
it is all so astounding that the sperm we
can’t even see will create a being that is
over a 100 times larger than the catalyst.
make it possible to be floored by this daily.

You can sacrifice so much
it’s not love to pour your blood
into a golden bowl for someone
else to drink, to pour yourself empty
into another so you can be red flecks
on their lips.

You are bold
I leave the display case door
my soft heart lives in
open to be a halfway house,
when I have made
my body into a museum,
tell me how that is not bold.

You can admit someone into your world
Open access, no alarm, on my heart
no museum entrance fee
admits everyone into my world.

You are happy
happiness is fragile enough
in my unbalanced brain,
it doesn’t need to lean on
someone else too while
I cross the seawall.

You can hope
There is hope in every protest,
I don’t want to just hope,
to be fueled by an abstract noun
I want to be in the hope
as the hope even if
I am as insignificant as a megaphone.

You can learn
when my father punched a hole
in the wall next to my mother’s head
I learned a lot about love that day,
and the next day hiding in a closet
with a bruised wrist.

You can ask the right questions
when I asked why she does not leave
if he hurts her, she said I wouldn’t understand.
7 years old was too young.
I should be asking her why she stays.

You can forgive and hold the best memories
I hold memories in small glass jars and hang
them from my ribcage so I can hear them
clank together while I walk,
everyday it becomes louder, more beautiful
a tune to sing myself to sleep with
the lack of romantic love does not mean
there has been a lack of broken hearts.

You owe it to your being
you can give love with a coffee cup
to a homeless man
you can receive from a friend
that sits on the floor with you
when you want to die,
I am not missing out.

don’t you dare presume to know
what I owe myself based on your
perceptions of wholeness.

By Mary Kate McGrath

The poem “A Life Worth Living for the Aromantic Soul” is inspired by this article: http://www.archetypes.com/article/10-absolute-reasons-why-you-should-fall-in-love/?mc_cid=45970eb14a&mc_eid=b3a2b07f04

Biography:

Mary Kate (Em) McGrath is 21 years old and graduating college in May with a sociology degree. They hope to have a service fellowship post-graduation. When they are not writing or completing schoolwork, they are volunteering for IMAlive as a crisis responder, giggling at cute pigs, and dreaming of unlimited vegan donuts.