Purged History of
after Janice R. Harrington
and hookers wore their hair red army red
a decalogue of reddened fingernails
red-hot brassieres red nipples underneath
red welts where customers had stroked too hard
and later they sweated in the afterglow
of red smoked cigarettes whose embers sparked
the dark a cherry red their pillows propped
red dreams and workers stood in line to buy
red books and read red pages on the tram
to work each creed a monolith of red
each stop another passage through the red
that dyed December on May Day they sang red
their children marched in red parades behind
a convoy of red tanks the wind blew red
because the leaves could only leave the branch
as different shades of mandatory red
and all the maps were demarcated red
the red of flags of blood on cinderblocks
and wire shelves gaped empty in the stores
except for red in three varieties
and 1 + 1 would always equal red
and red the baby’s name first word first step
the scarlet fever when the pills ran out
the mouth that swallowed every cure for red 