yellow
The Scent of
D Magenta
Julie Kim Shavin was raised in Georgia (yellow with a hint of black), Julie Shavin, aka Julianza, is a composer, poet, and visual artist who adopted the Rocky Mountains as home in 1993. She is past President and current Vice-President/Workshop Coordinator of Poetry West. Website: www.droppinglikerubies.com.
My daughter and I lock heads at synaesthesias.
She says A is a girl that is pink, obviously.
I say A is a boy and is royal blue.
She claims that 6 is a girl, red, of course
while I know full well that 6 is a boy,
yellow as lemons.
She insists the piano's E is a green boy
and I agree, to our mutual relief.
We go through the alphabet, musical scale,
numbers, over and again, arguing, threatening,
laughing up a (white and black) storm.
She is 9, an orange marigold with frilly leaf wings,
and I, an unhappy palindrome of 55,
burgundy, burgundy, though she insists, no,
purple, purple (passion or royalty's hue,
more to my liking, if impossible).
In her lavender walls we snuggle,
snap, and at times, even weep.
We take our synaesthesias seriously,
as serious as the late night air in which
we smell the footprints of approaching sleep,
those light gray FFFFs – and taste
the coming dreams with mingled fingers
and yellow yawns the key of G.