All the Shades of Her

to clasp you now and feel your head close-pressed,
scented and warm against my beating breast;
to whisper soft and quivering your name,
and drink the passion burning in your frame;
to lie at full length, taut, with cheek to cheek,
and tease your mouth with kisses till you speak;
love words, mad words, dream words, sweet senseless words,
melodious like notes of mating birds;
to hear you ask if I shall love always,
and myself answer: till the end of days;
to feel your easeful sigh of happiness,
when on your trembling lips I murmur: yes.

-

Certainly, she could be the sombre, starless black of depression and the brilliant alabaster white that - surely - only an angel can lay claim to, but it was everything between the extremes that caught and caged my breath. It was the gradients of grey - the grace, greatness, glory, grandeur and sheer gravity of her. It was the degree to which I was foolishly captured and captivated by her - just her and what she was. More than that, it was the shades. It was all the shades of her.

Rated R for sex, substance and swearing.
Poem credit: Romance - Claude McKay.
Chapter title credit: Stubborn Love - The Lumineers.