at your own risk.

Photo by allison christine on Unsplash

in my middle school spelling bee,

i lost when i misspelled asterisk.

that night,

i looked up the definition

and wrote it over and over

and over again.

i didn’t want to forget

that a star-like symbol spelled

a s t e r i s k

is quote-un-quote a reference

to an annotation.

the longer i stared at the word

a s t e r i s k

the sooner i realized

that if you omit

the first s and the only e,

you’re left with

a t r i s k.

at risk.

we were in love once.

i denote love with an asterisk.

omit the first s and the only e.

i think the word love

should always come

with an asterisk attached.

i tell myself this over and over

and over again.

fall in love,

but at your own risk.

☽