Yellow

On visiting a friend upon his impending death.

♣♣♣♣♣ Yellow ♣♣♣♣♣

They say a yellow rose
bears the message 'Drop Dead',
but I would only inhale its fragrance
and welcome death.

The yellow of a harvest moon
fades into slivers of silver light this night
as golden leaves adorn the trees
in this autumn of our lives.

The yield signs,
the marquee of restaurants,
the theatre's doors adorn their yellow shades this season.
They will be here when they bury you,
past autumn leaves long gone.

Come Spring the dandelions
will wear your yellow.
Forsythia will blare it from the banks
above the pond.

You turn a jaundiced face upon your pillow.
Your swollen arm and labored breath tell all.
Beneath the quilt, attached to tubes,
you dream of dandelions that bloomed
in a child's dream and accept
a single yellow rose.

© Kåre Enga {24 oktober 2005)

catalogue number: [162.471]

Note: for Tracy Hughes of Quenemo, Kansas. He died November 8, 2005. Sadly, his boyfriend Shaun couldn't be there. In the time before marriage gay couples had no rights. Obit: https://www2.ljworld.com/obits/2005/nov/10/tracy_hugheswatkins/ Shaun isn't mentioned.