Love Eternal

You don’t know this, but…

I have loved you for centuries.
Eons.
Millenniums.

Before time.

I loved you as a King.
A warrior.
A slave.

I have loved you as a field-hand.
As an artisan who worked wood into still life.
As an elevator operator accused of raping a woman who was white.

Terrorized for.
Tarred and feathered for.
Burnt and lynched for.

The same White Woman you married a century later.

And still I loved you.

I have loved you in the belly of the slave ships, floating in bile and vomit.
In the cotton-fields.
In the penitentiary.

I have loved you when you hated me.
When you hit me.
When you and your boys ran trains on me.

I have loved you.

I have loved you while you turned your back on me.
While you watched me struggle to feed our children.
While I had a nervous breakdown from having to do this life without you.

I have loved you.

I have loved you from the moment God blew life into your dirt-made body.
From the moment you pulled my pigtails on the playground.
From the moment you went senile and could not remember my name.

I have loved you Black Man.

I have never stopped loving you.
I can’t.
I’ve tried.

When I love me…
I am loving you.

When I forgive me…
I forgive you.

When I heal me…
I make room for you to heal you.

You don’t know this.
You couldn’t.

But I do.

I have loved you before space and time.
Before the sun snuggled up in the sky.
Before God said and there was.

I will always love you.
Father.
Uncle.
Brother.
Nephew.
Cousin.
Friend.
Lover.
Mate.
Partner.

My love for you, Black Man, is eternal.

Title: Love Eternal
By: Dr. Venus Opal Reese