Bring Me

Bring me the colour purple in its rawest form
And the Ukrainian words that my grandmother once used
The pearl that fell from my lost necklace
Bring me the fifteenth summer
Or my first birthday
My father's best days
Bring me the rose that a stranger stole from that vase
Before I solved his bluest mysteries
And the frog that lived in our broken old hot tub
The last song I ever learned to play
And a grain of sand from the Arrow Lakes
Bring me, if you please, the flakes of green in my first love's eyes
Or the way that my grandfather used to be
The piece of builder's tape I used to fix my broken ballet slipper
That they spotted all the way from the lighting booth
And a root beer lollipop
From that day spent with a runaway lapdog
Bring me a freckle off the cheek of my best friend
A piece of seaweed that lies under that broken board of the pier
And a lucky penny found on a theatre floor
My sister's favourite porcelain figurine
I think it was a deer
Or a speck of fibreglass from the insulation in my attic
Bring me the photograph of us among the vines
And a single ring from the chain-link collar of a guardian angel
Find me the dragonfly that my aunt has painted on her skin
Bring me the good things.