We wanted to believe in something powerful and true, like love.
We wanted to believe in something powerful and true.
We wanted to believe in love.

And so we raised our heads above.
And so we were a me and you.
We wanted to believe in something powerful and true, like love.

And when the push had come to shove.
We had to work to make it through.
We wanted to believe in love.

We didn’t wear our socks or gloves,
our toes and fingers turning blue.
We wanted to believe in something powerful and true, like love.

Until we could be rid of
pain. Until the others got their due,
we wanted to believe in love.

It was of
truth, by truth, we were seduced.
We wanted to believe in something powerful and true, like love.
We wanted to believe in love.

###

Katy Lederer is the author of the poetry collections Winter Sex and The Heaven-Sent Leaf as well as of the family memoir Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers. “Love” and “Mortalism” are from a new collection titled The Engineers.

“Love” originally appeared in Women’s Studies (TLR, Winter 2015).