Red Room

Red Room (1999)

At dawn
the waves crash in
red as storm clouds
hung over the Gulf like
a steam puff rising above
a cooling tower under which
control rods glow red
fired with the power
found in the sun's
center, the same sun
that turned on me
and burned my skin
red as the blood
swirling beneath layers
of cells, red as
Cupid's heart or real
roses not the mythic
ones found in poems,
red as a clown's nose
or my own face
when you start in
laughing at me,
red as a tip
of lipstick or cigars
lit and glimpsed at
night in passing cars,
red as a brake light
right in your face before
impact, red as the stripes
on Freddy's sweater or
the corsage on your prom
dress that someone other
than me pinned on, red
as the moon viewed
through 3-D glasses, red
as a broken catsup bottle
or your neon toenails, red
as my eyes in
every photograph
you take of me.