Tones of Home

Written upon return from the Ghost Ranch Retreat, November 2014

I am home again as a traveler with few words

to write, essence of place like blanket of

skin – burns and keeps us in.

Bloomington, IN light mint green,

nothing audacious, or brilliant

nothing repulsive….

The hue mint, light on spectrum but

hardly perceptible as tone. 
Except to those who’ve come and gone.

Bloomington, IN light mint green,

not like violet Salt Spring, red-orange

Abiquiu, gold Ashland.

I wear a mint green cloak,

but see the vermillion

of my death.  Like deciduous

transformation, revelatory.

When I fall,

scatter my ashes in the sand,

return me to rest with the burnt

umber and sage -with Christ

in the desert.

Until then,
You’ll find me sipping peppermint tea
in a green tinted window.

 
Allison for PGM