The Color Of Despair
Posted by restorel66 on May 4, 2009
An asthmatic stares at a gray
TV. It warns of red air quality.
Her bathrobed elbow is welded
to a smokey yellow table. She
does not raise herself to
the window, does not see
the glad dash of children’s feet
racing to the city’s silver
hydrant or believe in
the sunburnt men
who clench their teeth
and open it. They
tear the hot black street and
find the broken pipe that,
otherwise, would have sent
a brown mud flow rushing
toward her kitchen sink.
The asthmatic strains to
breathe, but does not reach
past the glowering ashtray
to the white inhaler waiting
beside a glass-half-full of
something clear to drink.
