Let there be paint

The Green Room

with apologies to William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a green paint
swatch

taped to the
wall

against the white
windowsill

It was meant to be that quick
bright sliver of
summer

light shimmering through the underside of
maple leaves in
June.

But after the walls had dried and
the furniture was back in
place,

the fluorescent green room vibrated as if
we had plunged our paintbrushes into
tubs

of neon lime ice cream and
let it melt down the walls of the
bedroom.

So, in one of those lemonade
out of lemons (or limes)
moments,

we mixed the leftover paint with a
bucket of white and started
again.

 by Gloria Heffernan
in volume 4 issue 2

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