The Quiet Choosing

By : Iyanuoluwa Oni

“Roses are red, violets are blue”
“Honey is sweet, so are you”
A season announced with noise,
Hearts on billboards.

Town painted red
Love boxed and priced,
wrapped in packs of roses
and boxes of chocolates.

“Awnn.” “God, when?”
February speaks loudly,
as if love only arrives
on the fourteenth.

But Valentine is
the quiet choosing.
More than performance,
it is presence.

It is hands that stay,
words that heal,
love that remembers
on ordinary days.

It is care without cameras,
affection without an audience.
It is not pressure or comparison
it is sincerity.

Valentine is not
a measure of worth,
not proof that you are seen,
not a deadline for becoming loved.

Valentine is not a trade,
where gifts demand body in return.
Love is honoured with restraint
and purity that refuses to be priced.

Not a reason to rush
what is meant to grow.
Some of us are waiting,
not empty, just planted.

Love is not late
because February arrived.
So let Valentine pass gently.

Let love be patient and pure.
Let hearts breathe.
Because real love does not shout
it stays.

HAPPY VALENTINE