Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Personal Challenge # 4

I was munching on Christmas cookies,  
when the talented Mama Zen handed the personal challenge baton to me: 

if everything was different 
Since I am on vacation, my first thought was to go to a salon. 
Here is my changing room ~





paint the day in lavender black
burnishing hair in purple night
bold as your lacquered nails,
tip tapping along window's edge 

close your dark crow eyes tight
imagining the room bare of clothes,
mirrors changing faces, and 
polished floor reflecting you, just you

for once

instead of spraying the walls all white
creamy and dazzling for other people, 
rearranging furniture, spotless clean
until you are a pale shadow lamp

that once wanted to burn
both ends of the yellow taper candle,
while replaying the short grainy film of
you, wrapped in your lover's rapture

the first

in black and white frames, 
the yearning in your bosom stirs,
churning your belly’s gut sideways,

you rip away maple leafed wallpaper,  
tilt the domed ceiling closer to Pacific sky,
lie on native bamboo bed, unspooled,

if everything was different, 

i want to live


me       

  
Words by Heaven


15 comments:

Kerry O'Connor said...

Wow! Grace, I'm blown away by the magnificence of this piece.. each stanza is a gem perfectly placed within your interesting structure, and these are words I'm sure we can all feel in our heart of hearts.

A hearty round of applause from me!

Mary said...

Beautiful. I loved the last full stanza and the two following lines. A well done challenge indeed.

Laurie Kolp said...

This is what I posted on your blog:

Ahh... this is beautiful... rich with such vivid images. Ripping away the wallpaper... I like that.

Scarlet said...

Thank you ~ I appreciate your kind and encouraging words ~

Ostensible Truth said...

oh this is great - well done! so many good descriptions - love the "paint the day in lavender back" and "you rip away maple leafed wallpaper, tilt the doomed ceiling closer to Pacific sky" - you paint a picture! nice!

Lolamouse said...

As I read this piece, I could tell it was your writing. You have a wonderfully distinctive style-very physical, beautifully descriptive. I love the lines "polished floor reflecting you, just you...for once." You really captured something I think many of us feel with this one. Bravo! And Happy Holidays!

Scarlet said...

OT and Lolamouse, thank you for your wonderful comments. Happy Holidays too ~

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Wow! Such fantastic writing. One of your best, I believe. Rich in images, and rather haunting. Your writing inspires me to dig deep - makes me want to write something, too.

Fireblossom said...

That first stanza is fantastic. Every word.

Mary Ann Potter said...

Amazing. I was captured by the "lavender black" in the first stanza, and then the images became more and more vivid as I kept reading. I applaud you! A wonderful poem.

Maude Lynn said...

This is just fantastic, Heaven! What an amazing approach to the prompt. This feels deeply personal, but speaks for a lot of us, I think.

Unknown said...

that last line... perfection!

shawnacy said...

'unspooled' ... such a word.
excellent in every way.
loving the challenges!!

Scarlet said...

Sherry, Shay, Mary Ann, Mama Zen, Kim and Shawnacy : thank you for your wonderful comments. Yes, these challenges are fun ~

Ella said...

I loved it...amazing imagery and I love the layers you shared~
Well Done!