When is it time?

When are you supposed to give up on love?
When do you throw in the towel?
Is it when she finds someone else? Engagement? Marriage?

Movies always romanticize it.
True love will stop her from getting on the plane,
from saying "I do".

But is that how real life works?
Is that what life wants?

Does it not show dedication to that love when you pursue it?
Or does it just make them uncomfortable and pity you?

If so, then what do you do?
Merely give up and accept it?

But if you loved a love so strongly,
is it in any way fair to give up on it so easily?
You put so much into love,
to just quit on it like that?
It would be like a painter burning his masterpiece a day before its completion.

So, no, I do not believe love should be given up on. No matter what the critics say of his painting,
no matter how they scoff and scorn,
mock and ridicule,
harass and degrade,
he must NEVER give up.
For if he does, he robs not only himself,
but the world
of one of the most beautiful things to behold.