Green

I stand in the door wanting nothing,

but to be a part of the little house we built of medium-rare earth

and broken eggshells and wriggly worms,

the bedroom walls are green and there is a single thought

tactfully pinned to its center.

I remember that everything is quieter in green,

and to find solace in the silent ecstasy of the earth’s preeminent color,

to excavate and toss away all the colors until we reach the obvious,

that green is the walls, and green is earth,

and earth reclaims buildings slowly over time with moss then ivy,

then as the buildings dilapidate and become their own graves in gardens of decay,

it swallows them whole,

like swamps and quicksand I thought would play

a much larger role in my girlhood battles than they did.

I want to crawl inside of the little house we built and play in the dirt with the worms,

I want to be reclaimed by terra cotta clay and tunnels made by ants,

and if I need to,

I’ll send a note to the green,

and maybe someone will pin it onto a bedroom wall for me.

-anna sluder