Pick a Colour...Any Colour
By Silver Spun Sand
Sat, 18 Apr 2015
- 2384 reads
6 comments
Each day that passes
she dies, a little bit more.
A girls’ night out – just
like old times; only not.
That was before...
The truth, as she sees it
hurts; cuts deep...deeper
than any surgeon's knife.
Mirror in hand, switches it around
to the forbidden side – larger than life.
Half opens a drawer; caresses
a brush and comb, redundant, right now,
as they lay.
A tasselled scarf rasps – pulled
from the back of a rattan chair...
green with blue stripes;
winds it, turban style,
around her head. Pinches
her cheeks but the pallor remains.
What? No rosy apples today?
A mother’s words, come back
to haunt her; passed away
last autumn...
a lethal cocktail of
arrogance, ignorance
and realism.
Look on the bright side, though, kid.
Life’s a bitch, but the beauty of it is,
it don’t last for ever.
Pick a colour, any colour
you fancy, child, and as they said
in those bad old, good old days,
a little bit of powder
a little bit of paint
makes a girl’s complexion
what it really aint.
Lipstick... rouge? When it all
boiled down to it, was this really
what she’d meant;
red
or dead?
- Log in to post comments
Comments
1 User voted this as great feedback
Put me in mind of Angela
Put me in mind of Angela Carter's character 'Fevvers.' The make up medium is really effective for transporting your reader through cancer treatment in an accessible, theatrical way.
- Log in to post comments
Such a strong image,
Permalink Submitted by Philip Sidney on
Such a strong image, contemplation of the past, present and future, all hard to look at.
- Log in to post comments
1 User voted this as great feedback
A colour for every phase of
Permalink Submitted by tibi popovici on
A colour for every phase of life, or maybe a colour for each moment experience, for each people met and lost - may be a color - but the great think it's not the same.
- Log in to post comments