In search of love nuances

 

I've been dragging the net all morning

to catch the language that can express 

love in all its biodiversity.

In Boro the word to love 

flows wide upon the tongue

Onguboy- to love from the heart

Onsay- to pretend to love

Onsra- to love for the last time

to name but a few varieties.

But it's Boro that now whitens on the foreshore

with the thirty one words in Irish for seaweed*

and googling Onguboy you will be directed 

to OnBuy-UK Online

while Onsay throws up unsay or onset

and it's the monolithic love in English that survives

So what does that tell us about love in modern times?

Copyright 2022 Cathy Leonard All rights reserved

* See Aidan Matthews poem

https://stancarey.tumblr.com/post/75151802376/the-death-of-irish-the-tide-gone-out-for-good