I awake from fitful slumber, greeted by my love’s dawning. As day does break, so too does love rise in golden splendor to push away the darkness of my confusion … my doubt. It chases the cold chill of loneliness from my heart and warms it with its passion.

Although love dawns, it does not crest until I see her. In the curl of her sweet lips, the sway of her walk, there does my love rise. In her voice do the birds sing their chorus to mark love’s full waking.

In her presence I bask in the glory of our love, letting its life-giving warmth caress my skin and console my heart. Only with her am I, as a man, fully awakened and allowed to walk amongst men as their equal.

When we part, our separate paths to travel, then does the light of my day fade. I am left in darkness and alone to my thoughts. The memories of our love are my candles, lighting my path that I may continue my stumbling journey. Yet, in my heart I long for the return of my love’s sweet light that I may again be more than a shadow of the man I am in her presence.