A Certain Shade of Blue

A Certain Shade of Blue

by Laura Summerville Reed

There’s a twist in me

That glows a certain shade of blue

You twirl me like a cigarette

To fit the twist in you

Touch me to your lips

Inhale

Draw me in

But I’m not your addiction

Just a substitution

And I won’t ask because

Closed doors are a kind and courteous thing

That serve my purpose well

Nothing seems new now

For weeks and months

Except this blue funk

And what a beautiful blue funk it is

It’s packaged one way

Delivered another

And the price I pay

Is always slightly different

Than the postage marked

I’ll walk face first into your vapor

Of clove and musk and luck

Skin bare in measured breaths

But I won’t take my naked body off

To show my well kept

and folded soul

In this certain shade of blue

Until that glow behind me

completely consumes

or burns itself away

LSR 2010©