When Heaven Calls You Home

The absence of pigment

was palpable

Silence shuttered and

locked the doors tight

Stark walls mirror’d

the perfect, invisible

Like gabardine

blanched in pure light

Alabaster carved pillars

and iv’ry

Gypsum, ghost-white,

chalk fingerprints

Pallid fabric

enlaced in chantilly

Only guilty

of innocence

Then, the first color,

violet-blue

Drew the zephyr,

where windows like veins

Flood the living room,

once void of hues,

In Earth’s breath,

bleeding in through the panes

Indigo on

wood flooring of ash

Lacquer highlighting

imperfect grains

Satin finished,

the once spotless past

Tarnished lies

in a blackberry stain

Brushed with death,

walls of blue, seeped in sadness

Every corner spoke,

cursing the heart

Casa blanca,

once faultless and stainless

Marred by sorrow,

awash in pain’s art

In the attic,

a seed laid in dust

Condensate

bubbled wallpaper tears

On a sill

stained with mildew and must

Green leaves sprouted,

soon, life would appear

Sunlight poured in

like lemonade-yellow

Clinging deep

to the wood, taking root

In the shade

of the branches, blue swallowed,

Evening fell

yet, the sunset was mute

Copper tinted,

full moon, orange, aglow;

Earth lay shadowed

in it’s pregnant phase

Where no words

paint the picture to know

Utter darkness —

Day faded past gray

There, a river

of love’s promised flood

Filled the dwelling

from floors to the gable,

Dyed in red,

living essence of blood,

House turned home,

gleaming white, like an opal

Lock and key;

Treasured heart in a skeleton

Where a spirit

of kindness and grace

Holds the deed,

sealed with wine, signed in crimson

While its copy,

in heaven, awaits