[Laika]: 661.Contest Entries.Concerti.July 07 - He is an ocean

First movement - Contrast

if he was a colour
he'd be the fieriest, most sinful and piercing red

a poppy
sitting on the greenest field


Second movement - Calm (before the)

he is only a man
like a sea is only blue
               jade, emerald, turqoise
                teal, petrol, indigo
                aquamarine

I sit awake by his bed
listen to the poems he reads
admire silently the fierceness inside him
I know: though his surface is calm now
                                     (lithium)
beneath it dwell restless waters
                                            here there be monsters
                                            with emerald skin, aquamarine eyes
ready to swallow the brave who dare
to sail further than the charts can lead

I'm not afraid, I want to drown


Third movement - Colourblind

I sat by his bed like I'd done
every night for weeks
holding his pale hand, translucent skin
blue veins forming a network of roads
my tongue wanted to travel, to get lost

he whispered through his paleness:
all his dreams are only white
there are no colours anymore
I let go of his hand
pressed a kiss on his brow and walked away
knowing it would be the last time I'd see him alive

later

I read his note once more
the trembling network formed by gray lines
on a sheet scented with opium
I see colours again, he wrote,
and they're brighter than I can stand