Romantic couple embracing, touching and kissing with passion on a ledge dressed up and in b/w

A Love Affair, From A to Z: “O” – Out They Go

The following is the next segment of "A Love Affair, From A to Z."
To start at the beginning of the poem, click here.
A LOVE AFFAIR, FROM A TO Z
by
Jade A. Waters

Out they go, a night to escape
Playing on the town
Like their lives, they
Depend on every second of this evening.
They laugh over dinner,
Drive with the stereo loud,
The moon roof open as they
Point at the stars
Like old times
Before he grabs her hand and takes her dancing,
Both of them close, giggling
Grinding
And intoxicated,
Running from the problem,
The catch in what they share,
Spinning around and around on the dance floor
With hands creeping along each other’s sides.
“I love you so much,” she says.
“And I love you, too.”
He means it, this she knows
And she will dance here with him
Pressed tight
Tighter
As close as they can be
For as long as it takes to forget
For now.

To read "P" — Perfect, click here.
B/w image of passionate couple making love in bed

A Love Affair, From A to Z: “N” – Need

The following is the next segment of "A Love Affair, From A to Z."
To start at the beginning of the poem, click here.
A LOVE AFFAIR, FROM A TO Z
by
Jade A. Waters

Need is filling her up—
The need to be with him, to go there,
To grasp this
In the way they both whisper about
But can’t quite reach;
Not as it is.
It stirs up a longing in her so heavy
She is anxious about the end, the complications
Whether it’s going to work.
He sees this and strokes her neck, cuddles her closer
Gently blows in her ear.
“Why are you such a pessimist?”
She's never been that, never in her life
And when she meets his eyes, he nods.
“You are. With us, you are.”
She doesn’t want to be,
She wants it to be everything
This love between them,
But she can't quite figure out how to fit the pieces of
This puzzle
Together.
When he distracts her with kisses trailed up the side of her neck
He says, “Do this with me. Be here with me.”
So she decides to listen, to feel him,
To get further lost in this forest
Despite its looming density.

To read "O" — Out They Go, click here.
Image in B/W of couple in embrace, man behind woman, grazing her back with their eyes closed

A Love Affair, From A to Z: “M” – Mapping Her Heart

The following is the next segment of "A Love Affair, From A to Z."
To start at the beginning of the poem, click here.
A LOVE AFFAIR, FROM A TO Z
by
Jade A. Waters

Mapping her heart
Is his skill, because he knows her through
Or so he claims.
Sometimes, he says he gets the depth of her love,
But she is reminded he can’t possibly know
How deep this well runs within her;
It’s been brewing, brimming,
Swirling up from its confinement
Far longer in her than he’s admitted the same to himself.
But she sees it in the simple things he does for her—
The way he cooks her dinner, brings her little gifts, helps her around her house
Or calls her for the tenth time on the same day,
Just to say hello.
It’s as if he doesn’t realize how much it means to her, to them
As if he doesn’t see how closely they’ve entwined themselves together
Despite the obviousness of it pumping their hearts full of rich, sweet joy.
One night, as he cooks, she says to him
“What do you think it would be like if we were normal?”
He stirs again; peeks at her
“What do you mean?”
“I mean if it were always. Every night. Not a day off, or a getaway.”
He ponders a moment, stirs,
Looks at her like he gets it and says,
“I think it would be the same. Don’t you?”
She thinks so
But she doesn't think he grasped what she truly meant—
And tonight she isn’t ready to explain it.

To read "N" — Need, click here.
Couple lounging in bed in underwear and lingerie grazing hands

A Love Affair, From A to Z: “L” – Lucky

The following is the next segment of "A Love Affair, From A to Z."
To start at the beginning of the poem, click here.
A LOVE AFFAIR, FROM A TO Z
by
Jade A. Waters

Lucky is how she feels with him
Whenever they banter, or even when they spat
Which is rare.
Seeing him breathes new life
Into what she thought this living thing was about,
What she'd convinced herself was the meaning of it all
“Can I tell you a secret?” she asks him
And as they lay there, she confesses that all this time
Before they knew
Before they shared
She’d been spinning tale after tale
Of what she thought it would be like,
What their love could taste like
Even though she probably wasn’t supposed to.
“I guess I could have known for a while,
If I’d just paid attention,” he says.
Yes, if he’d just paid attention
Like he does now, stroking her cheek,
Slipping up beside her again
And making her feel like the luckiest woman alive.

To read "M" — Mapping Her Heart, click here.
Photo of couple laying on sides kissing passionately

A Love Affair, From A to Z: “K” – Kisses

The following is the next segment of "A Love Affair, From A to Z."
To start at the beginning of the poem, click here.
A LOVE AFFAIR, FROM A TO Z
by
Jade A. Waters

Kisses, his kisses
Are her distraction throughout any day,
The sweetest addiction she craves when they are apart.
She imagines how he holds her when he gives them—
The fierce press of his lips,
The way his body is hot against hers
Always comforting, eternally strong.
And then there is the way they play their staring game sometimes,
In the deep kisses they share whenever they fuck;
He likes to dare her to look away—
His beautiful brown eyes seeking so far into her soul—
And it takes her a few rounds of this before she doesn't back away.
Now, she stares too, both of them smiling while
They fuck and kiss, never averting their eyes
I know you, I love you, I have you, always
Is the quiet song she hears behind these stares,
It is etched into their hearts, their very beings
And I see you.
This she knows—that he sees her,
Right down to the core of her,
And she never wants the kisses to stop.

To read "L" — Lucky, click here.
Shadowy image of woman looking to side wearing bra

Shouldn’t

SHOULDN'T
by
Jade A. Waters

I know I shouldn’t
Want you like this

Shouldn’t

Feel this way with you
Need you like I do

Want

All the things I get from you
And yet I keep thinking it’s

You

That is the answer
You that makes me crave

This

I don’t even think you see it
Because it’s not possible this

Way

I guess I’m loving you from afar
Trying not to let it show

But

It hurts too much
Feels too good and so

I

Will try to ignore it for
There’s nothing more to

Do

*
Sexy back of a woman

What You See

WHAT YOU SEE
by
Jade A. Waters

There is a girl
Beautiful, broken, bruised, smiling
She is all of these things
She’s got a history
You can never fathom
Though you try.
She’s moved mountains
Swum oceans
Run miles
Through thorns and rocky terrain
That
From the looks of her
You’d never imagine she could have faced.
What you see
When you look at her
Is the beautiful
And the smiling;
You don’t see the black and blue
That’s forever imprinted on her soul
You don’t see the scars
On her heart
Or all the battles she’s won.
You only see the beauty, the afterglow
The radiance she’s worked so hard to keep
Despite the scratches running the length
Of each of her veins
Marring her for an eternity.
She doesn’t flash them often—
She doesn’t need to, doesn’t want to
Because she’s earned these smiles
She’s stolen back this beautiful heart
She’s claimed a lifetime of looking forward
After what was.
But sometimes, when you look at her,
You tell her what you see
Like it’s all there is
And anything she could share with you
Is trivial and mundane,
Petty figments of her imagination
That couldn’t possibly be
Because how could a girl
Who looks like this
Have experienced that?

I hear you
I really do
It’s hard to believe something that ugly
So many things that ugly
Could have happened to one single soul,
But the truth of the matter is
They have.
So
Before you tell me it can’t be that bad
Tell me I’m lovely and happy
I’m lucky
And so it could never have happened
That way
For me,
I want you to look at me
Really look at me,
See the beauty, sure, but see the bruises
And the marks deep inside, too
Please.
I ask of you.
I’ve earned them
I’ve fought through them
They are who I am, part of me, always me
My right to feel and have
Not whatever it is you keep telling me
That you see.
That?
She’s a different girl
Who isn’t
And never was
Me.

*