Agape
1.
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If I could be a cloud
I’d move the L
But since I’m not a cloud
Perhaps I’ll just be loud
Loud as in reading aloud
As in I am allowed
To be immeasurably close or distant
A cloud, you could say
Just over the horizon or
Ever present in your backyard
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2.
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I owe myself more that I could hope to repay
For those crawling hours
That boast how much future I’ve stolen
Oh, it’s an eyesore but
Don’t dare say I didn’t try because
Offering myself the world is a taller order than you’d think
Oh if only you know of the holes I bit through my lip
But say no more
I’d rather not hear of it
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3.
–
People say victory with a V
With legs shoulder-width apart and arms akimbo
Their chin pointed towards their goals
There’s a vast variety of me’s
A vast variety of you’s
Remarkable, then, that we met now, today, here
There then, is our victory
Because there’s no denying
How vanishingly unlikely it is
That the very second I look up
You are meeting my eyes
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4.
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It’s invisible in your mouth
Romanticized but unappreciated
In its simplest, commonest iterations
It rounds off the tips of needles and edges
A balancing act of unassuming proportions
It’s nothing so grand as the end of the world
For all that it very much feels like the beginning of an epoch
An emotion so mundane in its humanity
We’ve imbued it with magic
Why do we call it a first love when it is love from which we are born?
Just something I’ve always wondered
To myself
Jenny Xu
Jenny is a UBC slam alumni.
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