Lee Ann Brown
Black is the Color
Yellow is the color of my true love’s crossbow
Yellow like the color of the sun
Black is the color of a strangled rainbow
Exactly the Color of my love
— Elvis Perkins
Black is the color of my true love’s Arrows
Black is the color of the cat
Black is the color of the nighttime mountains
Black is the color of the heavy stuff
Black is the color of
the ribbon snake
hanging over the
lip of the face jug
Black is the color of outside my window
Inky lumen
in grey silkier modes
Black is the pattern on
the woven snake’s back,
black eye gleaming
sliding coolly
into night’s ear
Inky muffled trees
shadow bloom
punctuated by tiny
silver lights
Blue Black Bear Paw
Exactly the color of my blood
Black iris of my eye widening
