Poetry | Free Verse | Love
Lingering Love
GiaB prompt #22: intimacy
He held her hand, tenderly, Palm-on-palm
He brushed, feather-light, each slender finger Knuckle-to-nail
His hand stroked her silk-silver hair, gently sweeping it away from her brow
He ran his forefinger s l o w l y down the length of her cheek Temple-to-chin
His fingers trailed upwards to her mouth flip-turned Tips-to-lips a lingering finger kiss
She opened her eyes locking into his Her lips moved imperceptibly “I love you,” she whispered and was gone.
© Carolyn Hastings 2021
I haven’t written about Lynda, my BFF-soul sister-heavenly muse, for a while. It doesn’t mean I don’t think of her; I do. It’s the little things that happen during the course of my day that might trigger a memory that brings her to front-of-brain and close-to-heart. 💕
That’s what happened when I read Victor Sarkin’s latest writing prompt about intimacy. My thoughts went immediately to Lynda, and the beautiful, gentle, intimate relationship she had with her husband.
I was not present when Lynda died on Australia Day (January 26th) 2019, but her husband was by her side, as was the rest of her immediate family. It was later that they described to me how she had opened her eyes in the seconds before she died, looked directly into her husband’s eyes and mouthed the words we had all heard her say so often to each of us, “I love you”.
It still brings tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat to think that they had this one last special moment of intimacy. To be honest, I can’t think of anything more intimate than this. 💕
Thank you to Victor Sarkin for the opportunity to share this with you, and to the editorial team at Genius in a Bottle for accepting this piece into their publication. 🙏 💕
Please, if I may, I would like to invite these writers to consider contributing to the prompt — Pedro Rafael | David Rudder | Orla Kenny | Jupiter Grant | Sahil Patel | anniewood | Amanda Spiller | Chloe Paulina Hawes
You will find the prompt details, here –
Thank you also, to Tamara Naidoo for tagging me into the prompt. You can read her thoughtful reflection, appropriately called Reflection, right here -
Thank you, dear readers for being here. 🙏 💕 Life is special. Cherish every moment you have. ❤️