Love Is No Surprise To Biologists

Love is no surprise to Biologists
because they have found
that it is skillfully written into our biochemistry.

Oxytocin
(a pituitary octapeptide hormone that stimulates especially the contraction of the female uterine muscle and stimulates the secretion of milk)
played its role as my love for you,
while the chemical vassopressin
(a polypeptide hormone secreted by the posterior lobe of the pituitary gland that increases blood pressure and decreases urine flow)
stimulated your ardor.

These chemicals present
We were able to bond—
chemically—
with the help of the vagus nerve,
ferrying signals from each touch we exchanged
deep into our nervous systems
(hand to heart to brain).

Identified, categorized,
it isn't so hard to understand
these impulses
that, without our knowledge,
created this.

And as soon as the chemicals
recede from our systems
(and our nerves
calm down
forgetting a well worn path
from lips to heart to brain)
we will understand why people let go.

— Victoria Curtis