Mental Illness

In 360 B.C.E. Plato wrote, “Love is a mental illness.”

Modern science has since given weight to this claim with studies

that show similarities occurring in brain events involving love and lunacy. 

Our romance is a chemical dance between dopamine,

adrenaline, and serotonin.

So when I tell you that every time I smell sandalwood on your skin,

hear your name from another’s lips, feel your breath on my neck,

see your face; 

I’m a wreck because my brain lights up like a city at dusk, 

my veins all flood, the planets rust.

And when I say I’m crazy,

Deranged, lovesick and struck,

I’m not just making this up.

My dear, these are all symptoms of the madness that is love.