All that is left of you are words
Words you turned into colors
Colors you scattered across pages
Of your abbreviated life.
Shades of Blue:
For tears shed by angsty adolescent daughter
Who goes toe to toe
Too often with her mother
Over boundaries too confining.
Shades of Green:
For gelatinous arrows of jealousy shot into older sister
Because you crowned her:
Something you never wanted to be?
Oh, such sly, sly, envy.
Shades of Red:
For a young woman lit
By passion’s flame
Skin tingling with desire
Longing for her first kiss, her first love.
Shades of Black:
For the night sky that granted you a peek at the world outside
For the color of cloistered curtains shielding you
From inquisitors who prayed for your soul
To burn and fall to ashes.
Today, your words like ink-stained claws
Scratch faded colors
Burrow beneath iron pages of your broken history
Keep you alive and free
Tattooed to the skin of memory.
