red [a reprise]

art by Gustave Klimt

Gustave Klimt, Dame im Fauteuil (Woman in an Armchair) 1897

*original posting, September, 4, 2023, here tweaked, just a little.

By the road to the Emerald City

Think of the colour, and it is you—
   it’s your mind
          it's your body
                 it's your clothes!
It warns me, the man, of danger
warms the bull in me
pulls me in deep 
where gladly I 
    love
         flame
                  die 
and am reborn in you.
 
Mars wars, the Bordeaux grows
and here on an ocean of poppies 
we get lost, make it, and
sink into bliss together.

Here I mine 
the cinnabar crystals 
of your soul, kiss you 
with cherries, take you 
with strawberries and
with the unerring fingers 
of a chi master—
massage the filaments
of your rhubarbarian heart.

I am your dog Clifford,
adoring and devoted,
Erik your Viking,
untamed and vigorous.
Always, I am always 
your beet
your twizzler
your Manfred Von Richthofen—
   le petit
          le diable
                 le baron rouge!
Think of the colour—
    and it is me.