WELL DONE! Poetry THE COLOR OF GRIEF by Chris Wood

THE COLOR OF GRIEF by Chris Wood

The sun sets in hues of fuchsia and misty rose

as shades of my favorite color

flood my mind — my pastel pink prom dress,

shirts, scarves, and pants I wear daily,

the blush tie my husband wore on our wedding day,

and my mother, her urn wrapped in pink satin.

I embrace summer, limp through the hot days

remembering the color that ignites passion

and calms my spirit. Though this year, the dazzle

of azaleas, butterflies, and rose quartz paled

as Mom slipped away, her soft, coral lips no longer

drawing in the fragrance of life.

Chris Wood manages numbers by day, spends evenings cleaning up dog hair from the abundance of love from her fur-babies, and writes in between to balance her right brain from her left. Her work appears in several publications, including Salvation South and Poetry Quarterly. Learn more at https://chriswoodwriter.com/.