Farewell to Red

Celebrating National Poetry Month 2014: A Poem a Day Challenge 

Poem a day #30 is a response to prompts from Poetic Asides and NaPoWriMo: 1) Write a “calling it a day” poem and 2) write a poem of farewell.   I am honored that this poem was named one of the top ten poems of the day by Poetic Asides Guest Judge Jillian Weise. 

You took me, when we were
young, into your bare bone

apartment, above the Communist
bookstore on a ragged downtown

street, not yet on the rebound.
In your single bed, I found

refuge from clattering children
and banging dishpans. I melted

into the crooked staircase,
the tattered volumes of Marx,

Hall, and Chairman Mao.
A castle with one quiet room,

you held guard under high
ceilings, an ancient chandelier,

and an antique bathtub,
rusted at the root. Once

you drove all night to rescue
me from my mother’s knife

sharp words, that gripped
the fabric of our heirloom couch.

But your firm hand pressed
close against an itching heart,

and your silence swelled
—became a bundle

I soon put out on the curb,
next to my red leather book.