The blood blister is expanded
As though the pool of ozone treated water
Had infiltrated the final layer of skin, passed
Through the membrane to dilute the purple puss
& thereby facilitate its further hold around the finger
There are five shades of green; from lime
To grass, to fir, to laburnum, to mimosa
There is only one pink, that of the solitary rose
Planted, one presumes, with a certain purpose
Perhaps to the memory of a prematurely lost love
And so the flies land on the skin; drawn by the sense
Of victory, or drawn by the same death as witnessed
By the fallen and dried leaves of the bougainvillaea
An old climber, that trails haphazard over the pergola
This poem is from the collection
