Her love fell upon me softly
like confectioners’ sugar
powdering warm doughnuts
or
the steamy clouds of mist
flowing from the iron
she pressed on broadcloth.
There was an ease between us
resembling grace,
the familiarity of two
who had danced together,
now reunited
partners.
Our impenetrable fortress
in the cubby hole of a dark basement
hid us safely,
dimly lit by a single bulb of light,
it was enough.
Enough to sustain us,
offering a space of comfort
from the brutality raging upstairs
in well-decorated rooms
preserved in plastic, all
untouchable objects.
I am grateful every day
for how you saved me, and
how I saved you too,
how we carried one another
through the darkness
into the full light brightly.
About the writer …
Linda Joy Walder, of Charleston, has written poetry in her mind since childhood. Her debut collection of poems, Running Naked in the Snow, published by Free Verse Press, is deeply rooted in a lifetime of magical and mournful circumstances.
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