Shades of Love

a poem featuring my favorite color and person

Kelly green
like my converse shoes
the day I opened the front door
to greet you and your eyes lit up.
You held the car door open
to your silver sedan
as I climbed in-
alive and hopeful.

Sage green
like the dress I wore on our dinner date,
just two seventeen year olds
trying to be fancy,
trying to find ourselves,
barely aware of what
a life together could hold-
smitten and naive.

Olive green
like the couch we bought
at the second hand store,
still here fourteen years later.
It’s cradled bodies,
hidden crumbs,
and sustained summersaults-
soft and sturdy.

Spring green
like the dresses my bridesmaid’s wore
as we said our vows,
a garden of friends
who witnessed our love bloom,
cheering as two became one
on sun kissed day at the end of May-
bright and warm.

Eucalyptus green
like the Valpsar paint
that’s covered an accent wall
and an eclectic array
of mismatched furniture,
a pop of color 
unifying our home-
bold and inviting.

Hunter green
like the storybook cottage
with thick, wood ceilings beams,
a short walk to downtown
where we ventured daily
through the rain
hands intertwined-
safe and held.

Evergreen
like our love
constant through the years
boughs outstretched
to receive rain and sun
reaching higher
rooting deeper-
full and strong.

---

Inspired by a writing prompt from How to Write a Poem by Tania Runyan, I originally wrote this poem a couple months ago for my husband. The prompt was to write a poem featuring a color. When I saw the Exhale blog hop theme, “Green,” I couldn’t resist sharing this poem, but to make it fresh, I added one additional stanza to include the “storybook cottage” where we recently stayed for our 14th anniversary at the very end of May in Brevard, North Carolina.

I managed to find a photo with each of the green items mentioned in my poem except the converse shoes, although there’s probably a picture of me wearing them somewhere in my stash of high school photos in the attic…..

Then…

and now.

---

This post is part of a blog hop with Exhale—an online community of women pursuing creativity alongside motherhood, led by the writing team behind Coffee + Crumbs. Click here to view the next post in the series "Green."

---