A poem that traces my memory through color.

The bowl is blue and last night I wanted to paint over red
my nails
paint them that blue

And this morning the woman on the couch in the painting was draped
in blue
her dress, blue, was a towel 
was blue bath soap and fogged up mirrors 
was the pillow beside her 
was flowers 
was sky

And the lamp shone in the bowl, shone blue
And the bowl cupped orange in response
And the depth of the bowl became an ocean
And the oranges were sunrises reflected in windows

And just yesterday I sat stranded in an endless room
where clouds painted water on the floor
where a stream of reflected prisms flowed back to me
where I sat mouth wide open
fingers touching fingers,
gold rings to silver slivers
where I was fed clementine slices
which burst to meet my tongue
which kissed last night, 
a kissing destruction in blue light.

Process

This piece began in a Poetry 360 workshop where we were told to pick an everyday object and write about it. I chose a bowl in my kitchen whose blue paint has always struck me. I found myself leaving the room and memories I associated with the bowl and focusing instead on its color, and the experiences I’ve had with such a blue. It became a journey through my memories of blues and oranges, bowls, and reds.