(G)love Story

Enclose my hand with yours
like a glove of velvet or wool
that swallows my hand whole.

Caress my tingling fingers
with the fabric of your soul,
whether rough or smooth.

Let me slip into every finger-hole,
feel the warmth
and comfort of weft and warp.

Enclose my hand with yours.

Kim M. Russell, 2016

^{Detail from Man with a Glove by Titian ca 1520}

Originally written for and published by Visual Verse, I have resurrected it for @TopTweetTuesday and host Helen Openshaw @Pocket_rhyme with our theme ‘Love and its Vicissitudes’.

Sadly, Visual Verse is no longer accessible on the Internet and its archive has been taken over by the University of Newcastle, so I have not been able to use the original image, which is probably copyrighted anyway. At the moment, all that exists is a holding page, which promises access to the huge anthology of ekphrastic poetry at a later date.