If This is How You Love

By Kayla Kennedy

Kayla Kennedy's debut poetry collection, If This is How You Love, is an intimate and deeply honest exploration of how we love one another. Told in five parts, it is the story of a young woman's heart as it learns to beat, break, and keep going. A journey through pain and solace, this book is a love letter to all the people who have ever

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kayla Kennedy
• Release date: Jan 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9780578336213

Kayla Kennedy

Kayla Kennedy is an avid reader, writer, actress, producer, and poet. She studied Criminal Justice, Psychology, and Theatre Arts at Westfield State University and received a master's degree in Applied Behavior Analysis from Simmons College. Over the years, Kayla has dabbled in both the arts and sciences. As a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst, she works with families affected by autism and other social disabilities. As an artist, she finds herself engulfed in one project after the next. From founding a theatre company, Spectrum Studios Theatre, and running workshops, to poetry slams in Cambridge, to the airwaves cohosting the What's the Story Podcast on the WTFAWTA network. Born and raised in Massachusetts, she currently resides there with her husband and their 200-pound puppy. For more information on her latest ventures, please visit www.thekennedyluck.com

Book preview

IF THIS IS HOW YOU LOVE

Copyright © 2022 by Kayla Kennedy. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without express written permission from the author except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews.

www.thekennedyluck.com

ISBN: 978-0-578-33620-6

ISBN: 978-0-578-33621-3 (e-book)

First edition: January 2022

Illustrations and cover design by Ronald Beek III

Dedication

I would be lying, if I dedicated this book to anyone other than my own damn heart, that fickle bastard.

But I would be remiss, if I did not dedicate this heart to Eric, the one who stayed.

Contents

HOW YOU LOVE YOUR FAMILY

HOW YOU LOVE IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES

HOW YOU LOVE THE ONE WHO LEFT

HOW YOU LOVE YOURSELF

HOW YOU LOVE THE ONE WHO STAYED

How you love your family

They say blood is thicker than water.

Yet again, they have erased history.

As the proverb goes,

"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water

of the womb."

And I choose you.

If This is How You Love

You’re standing in front of me and you say,

"I love my kids. You have to believe me.

I really do love my kids."

And I think to myself,

then why do you do this to them?

Why are we here?

Love does not sound like

a call from your daughter on a Saturday afternoon

telling us no one has been home in three days,

and they ran out of food,

and her brother is crying,

and she doesn’t know what to do.

It does not look like

an infestation of ants marching

over the littered pile of trash on your kitchen