A 3 Carat Black Diamond Ring with a White Diamond Halo

This is the eighth poem in the All the Ways I Love You series—one poem a day as we count down to my husband’s birthday. Today’s is for Fitzroy Island, the reef, the ring, and the once-in-a-lifetime love story we made our own.

There was salt in the air
and sapphires in my hair,
and you—
standing in front of me
like the ocean had sculpted you just for this.

We said vows
that made the sea hush for a moment,
our laughter folding into them
like tide into shoreline.

It was Fitzroy Island.
The sky wore blue like it was in love.
We weren’t barefoot,
but smiling,
exactly where we were meant to be.

The 3 carat black diamond,
ringed in a halo of white,
wrapped around my finger
like your promise—
bold, strong, a little wild,
and completely mine.

We swam in the Great Barrier Reef,
floated above coral cities
older than history,
and I swear—
I saw colours that didn’t exist
until I met you.

We wandered Port Douglas
like it was a storybook town,
but the real fairy tale
was you—
and this life
we keep writing together.

You are the best man I’ve ever known.
The kind they don’t make often.
The kind who sees love not as a duty,
but as a joy.

On that island,
off the coast of Cairns,
with waves tracing the rhythm of our laughter,
you looked at me like I was everything.

And you—
you have always been.