What is love?

As a young academic who was learning his craft
I was once assigned a near-impossible task
My superior knew it, though they wore a stoic mask
As they asked me to define with only a hint of a laugh:

What is love?

Now the humour here is clearly twofold
Baby don't hurt me, but I believe it's a lyric of old
But also, well, what am I meant to write?
This answer eludes academics all day and night

See, there is not an atom of love we've yet detected
It does not seem a disease, though you can be infected
The force of love can be felt but not measured
Love can break in a second or spend decades unweathered

We can claim it's simply a biological drive
Love only exists as a means to survive
Or chemically find oxytocin vasopressin the brain
But to claim this is love would be slightly insane

So, what then?

Well, I feel that, as an academic, love is best served
By acknowledging that its effects can be simply observed
But not just by recording attraction and affection
Instead more broadly defining it by a connection

As more than just lust and acting passionately
Love is what allows people to act irrationally
To love is to sacrifice, for once the seeds are sown
Love allows you to put another's needs before your own 

It is what makes us do the washing up, even when we tire
Love is second jobs and letting old interests expire
Love is making a fool of yourself to get a smile from someone "feeling fine"
Love is being willing to put every aspect of yourself on the line 

What is love?

I returned to my superior with these odd results to present
Love is weird to observe, it doesn't often make sense
Love could be smaller than atoms but it's a force like no other
Love is when you would lay down your life for another

***

Inspiration - John 15v13: No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life