Purple

Memory is such a part of poetry - whether of something seen or envisioned, whether long ago or just moments earlier. Memory plays its role.

In this instance, the memory was implanted so long ago I don't know exactly where or when I saw the sofa sitting on that front porch. It had to have been in my childhood, which would have placed it somewhere in a small town in Southern Illinois.

I remember how the light played across it, how I wondered what its story was, why it was sitting on that porch, neglected, but not really abandoned.

That image stayed with me, followed me, all these years until, finally, I put it to paper and, in doing that, gave it a life of its own. Perhaps it will now stir some memories for someone else, this old sofa "where so many secrets still lie ... "

The photo? It's a worm's eye view of some hyacinths I encountered while I was walking in Lincoln Park.

The poem:

PURPLE

Deep-purple couch sitting alone

in the darkness of the front porch,

lamplight threading a cracked

windowpane, settling like dust

across your back, cushions askew,

butt-sprung, cold, where suitors sat

enduring eternity, waiting, waiting

for that moment that never came,

where others, home from the wars,

found prickly refuge in your embrace,

slept nights away, bone-weary, safe,

where the sick found solace,

baby first slept, generations of cats

yawned, stretched, sank regal claws,

where so many secrets still lie

like lost coins, just beyond reach.

© 1998

(originally published in Potpourri)

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Today's word:lamplight

Afterthoughts ... in response to your comments:

Helen ... though I'm a little late in finding your comment ... and quite late in responding to it ... you've made my day! I have a feeling that the poem and the photo meshed ... and that leaves me feeling good at the end of this day when things didn't go quite right. Many thanks.