Ink me in colour
This monochrome heart
That’s bled black
For a thousand years and
Stained the Earth with pain,
Given birth to the sorrow
That wails through the night
A banshee’s song
Makes the Moon in her shame
Cover her face
And drop an icy tear which melts
A torrent which washes this despair
From corner to corner
Of a globe already sodden,
I’ll watch as each droplet seeps
Slowly from the pipette
Splashing upon the canvas
Like the first kiss of Spring
Its trickle running with quiet insistence
From page to page
Impregnates the white impassive
Sketches of life
Drowned from birth
By the flow from my eye,
Watch with impossible hope
For the pigment to take
And wash the black blood
Red – passion’s hue –
The disinterested white
Now coloured with love,
Empty the well
And I’ll drink with the thirst
Of the dying
And cling to yesterday’s hope
That the colour won’t come
Too late.
© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2020
