Fifty Shades

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Image by noblesseon
From amcsize.com

call me a prude
or a fossil or maybe
an anachronism
cranky of culture
for thinking and
saying conflation of
pleasure and pain
is sheer madness

I know all there is
to be known
about pain with
unfortunate intimacy
it gives nothing not
even remotely of joy
it excites neither
tacit nor candid
desire the roleplays
of dominance joined
to submission seem
born of a broken
respect for the dignity
wanted from human
relationships

grays of all shades
ride a colorless arc
of that spectrum
between black and
white where no
certainty stands
where no genuine hues
lend self-evident
pigments to passion
emotion and fear

at the end of the
day gray is ashen
and bloodless
a pallor well
signaling sickness
foreshadowing
death of a life
that perhaps was
too weak for the
vibrant bold
colors of living