Essential Red
Response Poem to “Wild Orange” by Karen L. Jones
Blood orange red
red eye
bloodshot at midnight
seething inside
would be lovers
shameless red
brazen as paint spilled on a wooden floor
beets boiled late at night
drained in a white porcelain sink
a fuchsia murder.
Red wears the Madame
conducting a symphony of sex and tongues
red knows how to press your buttons
red is the only color my husband likes
a cape of woven petals
velvet American beauties
it is hidden among browns on the robin’s breast
a thousand kisses peppered across the landscape.
Red is the hottest girl in the room
songs that dance too close
lip-stick pucker stain
that won’t come out
a night to remember.
Red is the color of revolt
bordellos and beautiful women
red spills out all over the sky
as we cross the meridian
aghast at the penumbra of tomorrow.
Red inside the skinbone lampshade
moonblood
bones break
revealing their marrow
veins of red mineral
shooting through granite on the hillside at dusk
god’s blood spilled 12,000 years ago.
This poem was inspired by the excellent poem “Wild Orange” by Karen L. Jones. Her poem stayed with me for weeks and eventually led to this meditation on the color red.
