Poem: how?

how do you do it?
i'd like to know because
it would make it all so
much easier

it seems to come naturally
to you
like getting off a bike
or combing your hair
and
you never seem to
give it much thought while

i can't seem not to

how do you do it? because
after all this time and
so many hard, rough lessons
i still have not learned how

is it an affliction? is it a choice?
befuddled. ruffled. resolute. stuck. tightly
held yet no longer held

dropped like a rock into a still pond that
stays still

how do you do it?

how do you stop loving someone?


-- doug smith


15 July 2019