Next in the Ongoing Poem Series About the Winter of 2005

December 6, 2005
The brand new big bar of soap bill bought me over the weekend is lemon yellow

I keep forgetting its existence
and then getting into the shower
barely awake
and there it is beaming away at me

It got me thinking about the color lemon yellow
A very distinct shade
Not
in fact
the color of lemons at all
but rather the color of lemon cream pie
Not lemon meringue pie which is bright and translucent
but a creamy pale yellow filling flavored with lemons

Not to be confused with butter yellow
which is more mellow and soft and deep and rich
versus lemon yellow’s bright sharp zingyness
Butter yellow has more ivory in it and less spring green
Butter yellow is the color of our new flannel sheets
put on a week ago when the cold weather started
they are divine to snuggle into and sleep inside of
to touch with your fingers
and they are the perfect color for how soft they are
Butter yellow is not the color of butter either
not exactly
But it’s pretty close

The vase holding tuberoses in the hall
(don’t get me started on the aroma)
is the color of actual lemons
and the five small sunflowers in a jug on the dining room table
can only be called sunflower yellow
One flower has leaves that have been eaten nearly all away
by some small bitey creature
so they are narrow with serrated edges
rather than a round-pointed leaf shapes like the others
Part of me does not like those leaves
they are messed up
jagged and torn and desiccated
plus they summon thoughts of the bug or animal who ate them who
for all we know
might still be lurking in among them somewhere
Horrid thought
But another part of me does like them
because I noticed them
Because I see them
Because they are there and they are real and they are imperfect
They are the way they actually are rather than the way I want them to be
Yet in the face of that the jug of flowers is undeniable darn good looking
A good reminder



image source is here