Krissi's "The Loving" begins as a tender first-meeting scene. The speaker notices the other person's hazel eyes, flecked with the green of freshly cut grass, and a small smirk, and admits to looking a moment too long. It feels like the start of a crush.
Then the poem shifts to something heavier. The speaker describes being hurt "by the roots" of their existence, punished by a woman who once felt like home. The poem doesn't say who she is, though the wording suggests a painful bond with a mother or mother figure. Against that background, the other person's embrace feels like a new shelter, a place where nothing could hurt them anymore.
The ending undoes that hope. "Nothing could" seems to close on safety, but the last line, "But you," reveals that the one who offered comfort is also the one who wounds. The mood moves from warm and hopeful to quietly devastating, and the short final line lands like a door shutting.