Self Love

They say you cannot love someone if you do not love yourself But loving yourself has nothing to do with feeling for someone else I know because I spent many years severely hating myself But I often felt deep love for friends I considered to be top shelf They inspired love in my heart, which for myself was not ever true I always wondered why when they would earnestly say "I love you" In my mind I did not deserve love but with them that was not true To love myself was something for me that always was taboo You cannot force love on someone, this has always been true But what do you do when the person you can't love seems to always be you A poem about my past. I no longer feel this way.