I was down at the corner market a little over a year ago looking to purchase some go ole, unprecedented, unconditional love. True love that is, not that imitation crap you can get just about anywhere. I was bluntly told that that particular store did not carry such an item and was quickly offered substitutes like someone’s time, company, and the illusion of love for a rather steep price. Of course I politely refused not wanting to break into the piggy bank and purchasing a knockoff version of love and quickly stepped out.

I didn’t really care too much about it at the time, it was more of a spontaneous desire than anything else so I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly and carried on with my day. About a month or so later I found my self with a strange craving and uncontrollable desire to attain this so called “love” yet once again. So I set out on a quest in hopes of locating this love I was searching for. I even browsed cyberspace looking to land a sweet deal but love just wouldn’t budge.

It was as if I was looking for this thing that did not exist, an urban myth invented and implicated in books and movies for purely entertainment purposes. It was then that I decided to slip into my little white lab coat and perhaps either try to create love or at least find a way to measure it.

I tried using the Richter scale for I had read that love makes the heart quake and the insides quiver but all I could measure were the seismic waves within the earth and nothing else. I experiment with a thermometer for I had heard that love was warm and even scorching hot at times but all it would tell me was the temperature in Fahrenheit. I tired to use a speedometer for I had heard that love made the hear beat faster but all I discovered was how fast my car could drive. I tired to use a ruler for I was under the impression that love could stretch but all I could get was the distance between two points. I tried to use a watch to see if it would stop ticking for someone once told me that love made time stand still but all I saw was second after second tick-tocking away.

I stood near the water for a song once said “aint no river wide enough” but all it really got me was some cold wet feet. I tried to climb a mountain for that very same song said “aint no mountain high enough” but all it really got me was some scrapes and bruised. I ran an ad looking for this love but all it got me was solicitors with too good to be true deals.

I read books about it, watched movies about, asked people about it and yet it was still so foreign, so unidentifiable, so out of reach and so made up.

But then something happened, something foreign, unidentifiable, something so very out of reach somehow reached me containing no price tag and no expirations date. It took me a long time to realize that what love really is, is a pair of shoes and all it really has to do is fit…

By: Lucky Clover