I
I wear red to face the day,
come on, root chakra,
kick in! Give me strength!
II
How many shades, I wonder,
in the spectrum,
of opaque, translucent, variegated
openings of red?
III
Red courses through my legs
straight to my heart.
IV
Strawberry gleam
in a crystal dish,
a woman pouts
as a man pours on
thick cream.
V
Red patent shoes
with red soles
sullied with mud,
she dips her handkerchief
in a puddle
and sits on the pavement
to clean them.
VI
Red candy
swirls in a lollipop,
a little girl skips
on a grey winter’s day.
VII
Red woollen coats
somehow feel warmer
than navy blue.
VIII
A man and a woman
walk arm in arm in the wind,
her crimson scarf
caresses his cheek,
their eyes look ahead,
breathlessly.
IX
Red inflections floating
on a sunny day,
eyes shut enthralled.
X
I shall carry
a single red carnation
so that you know me.
XI
A new lipstick
in a shiny black case,
red courage, of course.
XII
Red lip prints
on random shop windows
tell secrets
to those
who follow…
XIII
I become glorious red
in all its messy shades.
Each stanza is less than 140 characters – I have followed Sam’s suggestion and extended this into a 13 part poem following Wallace Stevens “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”
Marousia 