II ~

 

Your full color portrait

forces our reaction—

your hair is the warmest

fall in a dead winter, amber

background sparks the short, matted

bristles: adolescent questions

quickly extinguished when a scarf adds

texture, diagonal patterns, another

look of a 14-year-old prisoner.

  

In color you transform: we can

touch your swollen mouth, feel the

voice beneath the left side of your face,

where greys mix with pinks,

a rash of illness.   

 

The contrast holds us.