ROMANCE Poem: Is This Love?, by Samantha K. Collinson

The edged cliff face glimmers.
Opulent light
dances through moss fields.

Deers charge
through golden blades
of natural life.

Lakes extend
toward the grand hall.
Vast interiors.
Pathways open
to cherub paintings of old,
to veiled, enchanted sculptures—
naked bodices
calling out the nuance
in this grandiose abode.

Curved marble
surrounds your charm.
The flow of soft robes.
The tremors,
fragments
of an enriched heartbeat.

I am arranged
through stock.
Beneath your glacial gaze.
Held there.

You play piano.
One keystroke,
and the aristocrat in you
spreads through the garden.
A vast fountain,
a hush of carved stone.

No formality
can stop your eyes
on mine.
As I run.

Through floral fields,
leaving the gold-foiled dining halls
to history.

In the distance:
a horse-drawn carriage.
The moors are no match.
But I know
the shortcuts
to vanish.
To blur from your sight.

Is it lust
you see in me?
A gaze like centuries
have passed
between us.

Or is it longing—
destiny entwined in our soils.
No lineage
can hold us back.

Is it love?
Is this love?

It is early
when the birds call me
to the misty fields.
Where pollen breathes.
Where wings stretch open
in morning glory.

I walk.
You wait.

We bind our hands
and speak it all.

My rags.
Your riches.

Nothing
can part us—
evermore.

—

Genres:
Romance, Romantic Escape, Class Divide, Nature and Beauty, Longing and Destiny, Freedom and Rebellion.