RED

~ wear you I did ~

Artwork by author acrylics on gold leaf

You shall not wear me,

Red.

Today

crisped skin of babies wears me.

Red

wear you I did

in carmine

kisses

oh so long ago

it was and danced

in scarlet organza.

How I loved you

Red!

Sunsets,

no longer will

I melt into you

too red too red,

drinkers of blood.

Martyred corpses

do not count

yourselves,

you must rest.

For you

every day a Sabbath.

Wear you today

I will.

forty thousand

and more

immortalized in

thousands of

yards of gauze.

Yes today I wear you…

Red,

the cupreous slug of my heart

rests on saltysweet

taste of butchered dreams.

Red

you

stolen sap of mothers’ breasts!

Red

you

unopened rosebuds

only bullets unfold

Red

Which showers

shrapnel

like confetti

on starvation.

Red,

all the world’s rubies

for one

torn child?

Red,

cherries don’t want you

pomegranates say green

songbirds shed their

full-throated anthems.

Red,

listen —

seductions and