Purple
Catherine Daly

Purple ribbon, entwined in blond locks,
auburn braids, in hair dark,

the rumor is I am the color of hidden flesh,

engorged, engaged,
blood red and blue.
I compromise the heart.

Liver-colored leaving the lungs,
not the livery brick of mining towns,
love's liver; blue returning, starved, thin as mountain air.

I negotiate, locate
breath and murmuring: maroon or purple,
puerperal death in child-bed fever,
puerperium, poor

not blue
baby, heart hole, riddled,
ribbon burgundy,

not dead girl,
suffocating girl, asphyxiate,
influenziac --

with a throaty voice.

Close your eyes.
The color there,
the girl.