HUG

Locked down, face down

I’m lying face down on the river bank

Looking at the plants in close up vision

Swallows dart above and steer swiftly above silky ripples

And there you are

Eyes behind blades of grass

A sad shining face

A visitor to my floating meadow cosmos

Tears come, your eyes rimmed with salty water and red

I offer a cuddle

You glance around

To check no one is looking

It’s like we’re drug dealing or wildflower stealing

But we are hugging and emotion feeling

Lying down

I hold you and stroke your back and head as you let out tears

Held emotion rolls out and down your face onto my shoulder

I’m a shoulder to cry on

I’m a body to hold

A smell to unfold

And so are you

In the grasses, by the river

Time passes

Moving apart

Looking around

Are we in trouble?

For this cuddle?

No

Not yet

It feels good and odd and my god

I want more

I ask you to stroke my cheek lightly

With the back of your finger

And you let it linger

I reach over and squeeze your ear lobe

Soft skin hum between finger and thumb

It feels so nice

To spoon

I’m big, you are little

We lie, late sun soft light drifts over us

Earthy comfort

With a rock jabbed in my side

Across the river, the weeping willow leaves wave at us in the breeze

A jogger runs past

Cross legged, opposite, we sit

we look, we see,

Glittering with the view of each other

Giggling, focussing, blinks, winks, and then

Getting lost

You are no longer you

But a pair of iris blue, blue into brown and tiny black middle

Your face disappears

Only eyes remain, they stay

Neither of us can look away

Why not?

Time stretches

The pull of the inner planets

Seen through our orbicular portals

We shimmy and wiggle and shake and break the spell

Scritch scratch of your scalp

Rolling chase of the sunshine

One last standing hold

Hands touching spines and the muscles that hold you up

and me up

I squeeze your bum

A joke to end

This hug with a friend.

Mary Eddowes,
Bristol

Hi Charlotte

I finally had a hug with a friend/neighbour and I wrote about it. I find that I write in order to keep the memory for the future. Reading back evokes the time and place so easily.

Might be another one for the project.

Love Mary