Submitted for your perusal...
The first assignment for my wintersession poetry class. Opinions, anyone?
I travel back though the halls of my memory
Glancing idly at the vivid color snapshots
Hanging on pure, white walls
I’m looking for a single pink door
At the end of an infinite corridor
Swollen with moisture and disuse
It sticks when I try to open it
I shove my shoulder against it
And stumble into an oasis of bright afternoon light
My eyes adjust and I see a small elephant
With sun-bleached blonde hair peeking out from under her giant ears
It’s a little girl
Encased in fuchsia wool from the tip of her raised trunk
To the soles of her pretty pink ballet shoes
She seems so small
Her sunburned skin and freckles washed out by the bight fabric
Seeing her like this
I feel as if I could drown
In that sea of pink
Going under once
Twice
A dozen times
Before I launch myself back through the door
And into that pristine hallway
I awoke
Gasping for air
For sanity in the darkness
The sheets move against my skin
Clammy and damp
I roll over and press a kiss to the back of my lover’s shoulder
Clinging to my anchor
I sleep again
I travel back though the halls of my memory
Glancing idly at the vivid color snapshots
Hanging on pure, white walls
I’m looking for a single pink door
At the end of an infinite corridor
Swollen with moisture and disuse
It sticks when I try to open it
I shove my shoulder against it
And stumble into an oasis of bright afternoon light
My eyes adjust and I see a small elephant
With sun-bleached blonde hair peeking out from under her giant ears
It’s a little girl
Encased in fuchsia wool from the tip of her raised trunk
To the soles of her pretty pink ballet shoes
She seems so small
Her sunburned skin and freckles washed out by the bight fabric
Seeing her like this
I feel as if I could drown
In that sea of pink
Going under once
Twice
A dozen times
Before I launch myself back through the door
And into that pristine hallway
I awoke
Gasping for air
For sanity in the darkness
The sheets move against my skin
Clammy and damp
I roll over and press a kiss to the back of my lover’s shoulder
Clinging to my anchor
I sleep again