'Why does jealousy hurt so much?'

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And why does jealousy hurt so much?

It really does stab as one might imagine a knife.

And yet worse, for it lingers too and drifts like a low fog of barbs in your chest.

And yet why does it wane when you sink right in?

When you drink it up deep it can even make you laugh.

The pain can become pleasure at the turn of a neuron.

Like a lingered bite on an infected tongue,

Like slowly salving a deep skin graze with surgical spirit.

But why does jealousy still hurt so much?

Why does it come back to pain despite its embrace?

And why does it sit in the heart?

If it’s chemical it must affect the pace of the beat.

Flip it over and make it replete,

With tears and torn scratches,

Cut into it ~ deep.

~

Yet perhaps it is envy, which is worse for its bite.

Burnt at the stake you just as well might,

For envy is muscled on military might.

And if the other person is perceived to be similar to the envier,

The aroused envy is particularly intense,

For you know that it could just as well have been you,

Who could have possessed that for which you desire,

Who could have become a lover for hire,

Forever and ever and never a liar.

And worse still, when you had your chance,

Had it offered on a plate,

Yet let it slip through your fingers as you grasped it,

That’s when you know you’re the fool.

And when the pain cuts deeper still,

For all is lost now – too late.

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