summer brings strange changes

she started wearing green one summer,
years after referencing "color me beautiful"
and convincing herself that black and blue
suited her skin the best.

black and blue, all over, head to
toenail,
shoelace and eyeshadow to match.
but how
did green slip in,
the color of a winter, overcome?

maybe it was a reminder of the green
in her infant daughter’s eyes, now turned adolescent brown.
maybe it was to ward off the ghost
she saw in the mirror each night.
maybe it was to forget how black and blue
man after man had left her.

maybe it was to better blend
into the field
where she lay down to die without meaning to.

as she closed her eyes, the palate of her past
rose up, black towers against a blue sky.
and as her blue mouth opened,
a pale green melody escaped.
the truest song, a eulogy unheard
and there she died, without a word.