Gothic much?

Hahahaha- this one must be my goth side coming out... it's pretty freaking dark... but I still find it interesting... What can I say, I feel love as deeply as I feel loss. This poem helped me to purge that. It's a heavy, weighty poem, but perhaps some may like... you never know.

Crimson

From the smoke curling off

The end of a gun,

Red flashing, around, around

Me, like a migraine daydream,

Or so they say, I see

Your cotton-candy

Delight in my most wretched

Hour of solitude,

But I do not feel scarlet

Talons curling, encircling,

Until all is flooded

Blood-black and warm.

Safe it seems, until the stench

Forces a pin-prick to this

Collapsing cavern.

Singing of freedom and trembling

Thimbles while you

Shush the flailing, slurring false

Promises of best intentions,

And I know it and say it

But choose to remain,

Remain color-blind to it.

All the red, red around me,

Sticky, messy, filled with regret.

The red, red, red, red

Wild and pulsing

Burns, burn, burn, burn,

Burning red to black.

And I know it and say it

But choose to remain,

Remain color-blind to it.

Later, much too much, too

Much later, the pain, wild and pulsing

Sets in to slap me.

Slap me

Back to the smoke curling off the end of a gun,

And all the damage done, before me

And with me…

Crawl out of this

Cave, remnants of “me” trailing

Behind to watch our Love die,

And I raise the golden goblet,

Encrusted with rubies,

“Salud, to those who choose to remain,

Remain, color-blind to it!”

And the tannins slide down my throat.

All the red, the red,

Sticky and

Messy, filled with regret.

The red, red, red, red

Wild and pulsing burns,

Burn, burn, burn,

Burning red to black.

And we know it and say it

But choose to remain,

Remain color-blind to it.

© Copyright 2005 Joanna Brown