Purple Heart

Some things you don’t ask for
Some things just find you

Like the purple evening
When I was young
Pushed deep into my chest
Like a Depeche Mode song
Surrounded me like a panoramic ghost
And whispered in a baritone
“You belong here”

Ever since I’ve been looking
Like a tuning fork
For what would resonate
Like a cat wandering
Through fields of lavender
Sometimes Elvis, or Jeff Buckley, or Coldplay
Sometimes Faulkner, or Oscar Wilde,
Or Haruki Marukami

Something with darkness
Not devoid of light
Like the world through violet sunglasses
A tint to everything

Perhaps it was just
The difference it provided
From the starkness of daylight
A place for my sensitive soul
To hide without being
Totally lost

I could still see my open hand
In front of my face
Hear another’s voice
If with some sort of affectation

I never wore black
I was never that sad or disillusioned
I didn’t think I could fit in with even them

I had no place but feeling and color
And I wanted a color that held hope
Humanity, perhaps a sort of royalty

If there is a color to my soul
I think it would be purple
My home in only a brief hour of the day

I am twilight
My bruised but beating heart
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