Red on Red

Red protects itself. No colour is as territorial. It stakes a claim, is on the alert against the spectrum. (Derek Jarman)

i
outside the room where nothing is natural and a red bed burns on terracotta tiles   rooks make jagged black nests in trees   piercing the innocence of baby blue skies while she stretches   opens her legs in invitation or obstruction   sensible shoes and ankle socks to hey babe take a walk on the mild side   counting sunbeams and sunglasses   contemplating train times   lunch times   the times they are a-changing times   bacteria breeding on skin   whether she dares eat a peach   how best to navigate squalid subways   breathe   don’t breathe   look up   look down   walk   run   the number of steps required to reach the pareidolian blue portal on the wall and whether a slide of big red lipstick in Love in a Lift would calm her down

ii
although it’s spring   autumn hides and multiplies in young hazel nuts that quietly bud on branches and brush the window with newborn sweetness   while archangels sleep in attics waiting for Christmas and she contemplates red   for love   life   death   disquiet   ardour   angst   the knife held too close to the flesh   the exquisite pain that flowers   blooms and how trees bear witness as they always must to the red of dawn splitting the sky while angels hide in leaves that flicker like flames

The image that inspired this poem is Le Lit Rouge, by Francis Gruber, 1944. A public domain image from wikiart.org.