http://slow.writerscafe.org/Bookends The original writings of author Curly Grace en-us Copyright 2026 WritersCafe.org 1779111120 WritersCafe.org RSS Generator 15 *** http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3134435/ Your wordsarrive like weather in my chestsomething shiftsbefore thought heat without namebreath that forgets itself the room changes shapewithout sound and I noticetoo late how easily I respondto what you don’t touch. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3134433/ We stand inches apartclose enough to feelthe ache between us,not close enoughto soothe it.Your eyes confesswhat your mouth resists.Each second stretches tight,humming with sharp sweetnessof wanting youbefore you finallyreach for me. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3134215/ I wake at night,skin damp,your language still movingwhere I left it,not spoken,but felt.The heat of youdoesn’t touch,it settles slowuntil I forgetwhere I end.You take my mindwithout asking,guide my handlike it already knowsthe shape of you.Stay there.Don’t rush.Trace the placesthat answe.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3133542/ I am not stillwhen you beginI am already leaningtoward the placeyou haven’t touched yetbreath catchingon the edge of youbefore it even arrivesyou say meltingas if I don’t feelthe slow surrenderof skin learninghow to listenthere is a thirstbut it isn’t emptyit is knowing.the kind th.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3133333/ It doesn’t start loudIt never doesIt starts with beckon...a quiet invitationbarely spokenThen drawsomething shiftsattention narrowsbreath changesNext tempt...choice entersbut it’s alreadyleaning one wayTeasea brushthen a pausetension stretched thinon purposeBeneath that stirsomething wak.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3133331/ There’s a gravity to you,quiet, irresistible,the kind that pullswithout touching.But when you do touch,the night folds around uslike silk caught in a fist.Your voice at my earundoes me fasterthan the heat of your mouthon my shoulder.I fall into wanting,into you. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3133055/ Only weather, never the same,no shape, no edge, no final form.A current moving through the ground,low and humming, without sound.The earth remembers how to lean,from winter’s weight into green.Not arrival, only return.The soil forgets its frozen past,slowly breaking, vast.Rain remembers how to.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3132346/ I dreamt you,without your face,only the weather of you.Current moving through me,low and humming,my body litlike a struck bell.Arousal braided with exposure,stripped bare,yet untouched by danger.Innocence sheltered,held.The memory returnedof the nightI could not stop wantingto touch you,to be taken .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3132345/ I keep thinkingabout the way you look at me,like you are holding back.I wonderhow long restraint would lastif I leaned in closer,if I let my fingers restwhere they don’t quite belongand thenpulled away.I like the tension in you,the way you hold yourselfstill.I like knowingI could undo itslowly.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3132343/ Shadows stretchcurl around usas your hands explorethe lines of my body.Light flickersyour touch stays constantslowdeliberatemelting me into the darkwith every glideof your fingers. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3131931/ that soft, God-sized silencebreathing through mewhat your quiet looks likewhen it has a place to liveold soul shimmerstill arriving http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3131913/ * http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3131537/ Your desireis slow and thick,dark honeydrippingfrom every glance.You trace  my spinewith deliberate sweetness,each touch a question,and a claim.I melt into you,into the warmth you draw out of me,  drop  by  drop. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3131461/ The warning didn’t comewith sirens or lights.It came quietly,a shift in the air,a stillness settlinglike dust before a storm.The horses grew restless,pacing the fence line,ears toward somethingI could not yet see.Even the cowslifted their heads,watching the horizonas if it heldan answer I refu.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3131301/ Lanterns swing between the trees,casting gold upon the moss.We walk side by side in ease,laughter hums where bees emboss.Velocity guides our waythrough the sun-drenched, flowering glade.Every step a bright display,crossing thresholds we have made.Hands brush tall grass, soft and sweet,fingers trace .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3131198/ I watched the thread,slip from my fingers,cold as steel.I couldn’t hold the end,or trace the start.Like a shadow in alleys,following the hunt,its shadow in my chest,too swift to name.I watched the threadthrough the silence.You can only sensewhen nothing stirs.I felt tremors pulsethrough skin, .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3131180/ This one got deleted when I was editing. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3130980/ I didn’t learn you politely.I learned youthe way hunger learnsby circling,by scent,by the pullI couldn’t reason away.My tongue didn’t ask.It searched.Tracked heat.Followed the placesyour breath broke first,where control thinned,where you openedbecause your bodyrecognized need.I mar.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3130731/ I almost set the pen down and you placed light back in my hand. Thank you. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3130661/ The soul knows how to mend itself  tracing warmth beneath the ribs  along the spine  over the heartThe mind quivers restless  but when it softens  when it quiets   the whispers settle   curling through the ches.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3130647/ Your voice crawls likea drum under my skin,slides in a crack of my ribs,pulls me deep intothe spark you leave behind.Every glance a promise,every brush of your handsends fire down my spine.I shake, sway and tremble,fingers tracing slowmelodies along my body.Your laughter breaks throughlike thunderin.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3130173/ The weight you carry feels immenseyet even in the grayest houra hand reaches out, a tiny toucha spark soft, certain, aliveMoments like that lingera cheek brushed, a kissreminders that love sees youeven when the world feels heavyYou do not have to fix it allnor carry every shadow aloneBreathe, for br.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3129941/ Some write for the eye alone,for ink that settles, still and shown,where meaning waits in quiet rowsand rests where silent reading goes.But I have never trusted still,I listen for a deeper will,a hidden pulse beneath the line,a measured breath, a truer time.Not just the word, but how it leaves,the w.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3129794/ Blurring poetic lines- A Poem by PaleWriter inspired this little piece. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3129761/  I hold the space where silence bendsWhere want begins but never endsOne breath away from giving inAnd knowing where we’ve always beenHe speaks in honey over fireA sweetness edged with quiet desireEach word a spark I cannot outrunA slow undoing just begunI feel it settle on my skinNot qui.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3129718/ She leans close and edges fold.Shadows curl and thoughts untoldtwist, tremble, hum, and hide.Threads of gold ripple beneath the tide.Golden currents, soft and wide,drift, drift, a secret slide.Colors bloom where darkness grew.Clarity glows through every hue.Lo.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3129589/ For the One Who Lingers http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3129578/ The waterpulls backand I see him again.Eyes that have carried stormssoften under the light of the kitchen, the quiet hum of a fridge like a lighthouse keeping watch.He speaks in small phrases,each one a step back from places I cannot follow.I touch his hand.It trembles.Not t.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3129115/ In the quiet roomwhere hope feels thinI sitwith a heavy heartAnd yeta presence risessteadywarmholding meNot distantNot imaginedRealHoldingNearGod leans closeto the crushedto the wearyto the shatteredYour tears are knownYour silence heardYour soul carriedThrough darkThrough endless darkEven hereEven .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3129082/ The phone rings.One.I tell myselfhe is busy.A missed callis an ordinary mercy.Two.Maybe the phoneis on the counter.Water runsin the sink.Dogs barkingat nothing again.Three.The housefeels larger.Silence stretches through the rooms, like a hallway without lights.Four.I think of him,&ems.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3129077/ My days are different now.You are in my thoughts every day.Not once.Many times.I remember how it started.It happened fast.Your words caught me off guard.You compared me to angels.To ancient art.You made me feel beautiful.I believed you.Then something changed.You stepped away.Maybe it became too real.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3128902/ Some beauty is quiet; some fire is eternal. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3128819/ I married a man of the sea.Salt lives deep in his bones.The horizon rests in his eyeslike something he once chasedand never fully left behind.They told me the war was over.The uniform folded.The medals sleeping in a drawer.The world moving forwardas if violence were a seasonthat knew how to end.But .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3128802/ Do not tire, do not fadeyour small light still guides the way.Lift your hands, whisper your hopelet mercy fall where hearts are closed.Breathe, and breathe againgrace softens stonefaith carries flame.Rise each dayextend your handyour devotion flowsinto the unseen, the unheardeverlasting. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3128689/ You bring me to tears  when I walk awayI try to growI try  to become moreYou create havocNot by accidentBy  fearI never needed youI  wanted youYour fear dismantles   everythingpiece by   pieceNot.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3128682/ Yearscarved me hollow.Your weightpressed deep.Our lovefrayedlike a ropestretched too far.I reached for youand foundonly emptiness.Your echoeslingerpulling at my chest.I am tiredof lifting themof pretendingthe ember I carrycan lightwhat’s lost.I movethrough shadowswarmth fading to ash.Still tre.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3128673/ for those who understand the word http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3128574/ I wait in the quietwhat is mine will trace mewhat is not will driftI hold the pulse closebreath to breathskin to thought http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3128116/ I walk in the space betweenwhat wasand what is yet unspoken.I feel the pulseof fragments we have shared,and I let them restwithout needing to gather them all.I honor the pauseand the quietbecause it is mine to hold,and I will not lose myselfin the currents of what could be.I am presentwithout graspi.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3128107/ Sometimeswhen I read you,there is a linethat feels warm in my handsas if it has already knownthe shape of me.I never quite knowwhether to hold itor let it drift backinto the roomwith everyone else.You once saidthat if something were mineyou would place it there.I thinkI am simply learninghow to wait.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3128090/ I descend.Not softly.Not asking.Not lost.The earth opens, and I step into shadow as if I made it myself.Seeds burn in my belly,each one a spark of what will become,a sweetness wrapped in fire.I taste them willingly,letting the heat curl through me like rivers under ice.I am maiden.I am queen.I am hu.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3128031/ He pierced himself.Not duty.Not command.For me.Blood.Hot.Spark.Promise.I felt it in the dark.In breath against skin.In fingers lingeringlike fire knowing flame.Love struck.It pricked.It burned.It bled.I trembled.I opened.He did not claim me.He offered himself.Every touch confession.Every pause devot.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3127989/ He came in darkness.No face.No name.Only heat.Only breath.I opened.He moved through melike tide.Like fire.Like something eternal.Every touch a question.Every pause an answer.I saw him once.The light revealed desire.I lost him.I followed anyway.Through fire.Through doubt.Through hunger in my bones.Wh.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3127975/ I loved him unseen.That was my faith.I reached for lightand lost him.That was my undoing.So I walked through silence,through tasks that scraped the bone,through doubt that tasted like ash.I did not stop loving.That was my power.When he returned,I was no longer the girl who waited in the dark.I was t.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3127973/ Curly does not forget. She keeps embers in her pockets. She remembers heat long after the room goes cold. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3127587/ We already sat across from each other once.Do you remember that?The way light falls on a face.The way a voice soundsunfilteredthrough glass or dots.We were not imaginary.So when you picked a timeand said this may take a while,I believed you meantsomething worth the weight.We had already shared a tab.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3127563/ * http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3127470/  Closer always closer my body answers before my mind can burning in rhythm with you http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3127463/ Curly bursts in like wildfire,kicks open the doors I keep closed,flips the quiet hour upside downand laughs at the neat rows of restraint.She screams at shadows,throws confetti at boundaries,spins heartbeats into dizzying pirouetteswhile I hold steady, watching the chaos bloom.“F**k him,&rdquo.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Bookends/3127459/