Photograph and words by Evonne Johnson | @itbeevonne

What does tenderness mean to me?
It means the soft graze of a hand on another.
A ray of sunlight shining through a curtain.
The smallest snowflake
That can become a giant snowball.
It means home.
Peace.
Calamity.
Tenderness erases the feeling of longing,
for it's the cure of some long lost poison.
A vial filled with a deadly chemical,
a biohazardous material;
Something that can make your nerves
curve, crunch, and coil.
Something that can make your head
twist, tilt, and twirl.
Something that can make your spine
swirl, stretch, and
snap.
Tenderness makes it all go away.
It means the soft graze of a hand on another.
Then as each hand begins to dance with the other,
they do the waltz and become intertwined.
Locked in a never ending cycle of love.
That's tenderness to me.