I want to discover what’s orange in the world:
to come upon a leopard lily;
flame lichen clinging to a rock.
A barn swallow’s chest, a monarch’s wing.
Or just a bird-of-paradise against the sky.

I could slice a mango or suck on a section
of tangerine. Make soup for lunch
with pumpkin, squash, carrots, yams.
Could settle down by a fire, copper and blue,
or by the orange glow of a glass lamp.

What I have in mind is a fat ripe sun
the scarlet of a California poppy—
and me in an ocher-orange dress,
lips painted mandarin, twirling
to the rattle of Mexican maracas

until I drop like the sun
and the world grows dark again.


From In the Mood for Orange (Gvanim, 2007)
This poem first appeared in CAIRN: The Saint Andrews Review (2014).
Used here with permission.