sealing envelope
with a gentle kiss
~ heart safe inside
AP: 1st place 2026
Always thinking ahead,
as opportunity seldom knocks,
I'm still and always will be
pushing the envelope outside the box.
As what goes up must come down,
if I may have my way and say today,
airlines should sell seats by the pound,
the more you weigh, the more you pay.
History has shown (we've always known),
when American Indians he's among,
all the better to speak out of both sides of mouth,
white man speak with forked tongue.
As stress brings on distress,
employ mind over matter,
and dispense with the former,
to prevent the latter.
If God created mankind in his own image,
as some are straight and others gay,
was God therefore bisexual
or merely dabbling in shades of grey?
A well-balanced world would be bereft,
it can't be all right as nothing would be left,
and almost lost in obscurity,
its axial tilt of 23.44°,
is also known as 'obliquity'.
I'm a furry Aussie wombat
I'd like to ask you for a date
And if it all works out
you could become my best mate
Together we'd go bush
where we'd scratch a little furrow
The start of a conjugal home
we could extend and build a mighty burrow
We could feed upon the Aussie native grass
to that menu add some leaves and roots and moss
And if we become a couple
I'd always let you be the boss
I'm regarded as a cuddly kind of chap
who knows we might eventually elope
I would send you birthday cards
communicate by post, in a brightly, coloured envelope
As I sit gazing upon the unsympathetic clock.
Wiling away these last few dread filled hours.
Stirring my tea, or is it stirring me?
Confusion reigns.
My weary eyes plummet toward the newest envelope on the oak birthed table.
The Violet Grape Purple one, fore it is pregnant with the last love filled endowments of my now ex-wife.
Before when I had the guiltless luck to call her mine.
Or am I at fault?
Either way the staring envelope is all that reminds me.
Why did you have to come in the post just as I was forgetting?
Just when I was becoming too tired to care, about her presence in my bed , in my soul.
Reap me , tear me, but please don't remind me of her.
Wildflowers and persimmons the power in her laugh.
At long last I can stand no more, I gather the mocking, accursed letter and in a rush in a chair I alight.
By the fire I strain to throw you in.
I pitch back instead, hurtling down, down.
On the floor I weep.
In twilight’s hush,
a postman placed a violet envelope in my hands—
grape-purple, whispering of royal secrets,
its seal a shimmer of hidden magic.
I broke it open with trembling care;
a white page gleamed inside,
its words in purple ink,
a script beyond my understanding.
Yet meaning rose like starlight:
a princess revealed in the grace of her hand,
longing for my warmth,
her message wavering between silence and desire.
But what use is a summons,
if the words are swallowed whole,
devoured by the very skin of paper
that carried them to me?
Do princesses ever love peasants?
Do they scatter love in indecipherable riddles?
Do they bind longing in codes none can break?
And yet, the envelope whispered my name and address.
Sent by no one that I know
From the mailbox I did find
A violet paper soft like snow
A darker grapey purple kind
It wasn’t sealed nor stamped at all
There was no writing I could see
I wondered who had come to call
And left this purple note for me
I turned it gently in my hand
Not wanting to disrupt its look
Looking at the Hallmark brand
It had me now, bound and hooked
I lift the flap up just enough
To see the paper tucked within
I tried to pull it, not too rough
For ripping it would be a sin
The paper came and it was white
A contrast to the darker sleeve
And then I saw to my delight
My love said he would never leave!
I have a special request, for I am King.
Messages for me you may not bring
inside a plain white envelope! Whatever are you thinking?
Blue, you say. What about blue?
Well, a nice blue regal envelope might do.
I’ll accept blue, but only if it’s touched with violet’s hue.
Yellow or green? Is that what you ask me?
Yellow is for cowardice. Green could show some envy.
I am King; my colors must show splendor and majesty.
I recline in luxury. Grapes from servants I am fed.
Don’t even mention brown or black be used in purple’s stead.
Bring me a GRAY envelope? I’ll say: Off with your head!
.
A violet grape purple envelope. That would make me ecstatic.
You ask where your freedom is? Do I seem as though I'm democratic?
Envelops not colored as requested will be very problematic!
She hadn't received a violet grape purple envelope,
As the invited guests had done. It was more than she could hope.
Each guest had known for ages to expect the guilt edge invitation.
The bedraggled woman knew this wedding was way above her station.
She stood in the foyer of the church, through the window to the aisle.
Her threadbare clothes hung around her form in denial.
She watched him take her arm, as they approached the groom.
A hush was heard as the organ played in the room.
How stunning the bridesmaids, four beautiful girls,
The bride exquisite, her delicate lace gown studded with pearls.
The crowd were obviously all well to do,
Men in Versace suits, women clad in Chanel and Dior too.
She listened as they said their vows and swore to be true.
She smiled as he proclaimed to his bride “I love you”.
Marriage complete, they would all soon walk out to the street.
It was time for the haggard woman to make a hasty retreat.
He glanced at her but didn’t raise an eyebrow.
She would never be recognized the way she looked now.
It was so long since she had cried, she shed just one tear.
Her dear daughter would never know that her mother was here.
Violet grape purple envelope
Beholder of your wildest dreams
Holding all the things you long for
Bursting joyful at the seams
Held in gentle mystic splendour
Locked, entombed, a treasured case
Sacred thoughts possessed so tightly
Coccooned within this hidden place
Wrapped in warming rays of sunlight
Imaginary classic trope
Bestower of the dreams envisaged
Violet grape purple envelope
Time seems to fly by along with the years.
it was only yesterday when I was young.
I enjoyed shopping for pretty writing paper,
sitting in flowered boxes with colorful envelopes.
The box I loved the best,
was the violets covering the box and paper,
with the matching violet grape purple envelopes.
I would spend hours writing my love,
upon these pretty flowery pages,
then seal the violet grape purple envelope.
My red lips would place a love kiss,
to keep the envelope company.
Violet Grape Purple Envelope
Sponsored by: Robert James Liguori
Contest Judged: 10/4/2025 11:20:00 AM
( 7th place )
In the mailbox, it waited,
a violet grape purple envelope…
not the plain white of bills,
not the business-blue of routine,
but a shade rich as twilight grapes
pressed into wine.
The flap held more than paper;
Its pulse echoed the warmth of a waiting hand,
the secret weight of words
never said aloud.
I lifted the seal,
and the room tilted…
like stepping into a midsummer orchard
where each branch hung heavy,
brimming with whispered secrets
of fruit still blushing in the sun.
Inside, no gold, no check,
just a letter, simple and trembling.
Ink curved across the page
like vines climbing a trellis…
every word a fruit,
sweet with risk,
staining me purple.
I held it close,
as though the page exhaled in quiet pulses,
like hidden grapes fermenting
beneath stone and quiet flame…
a slow transformation,
love softening into molten amber.
I can't avert my wistful stare,
from a memento lying there.
Tears fill my eyes, and I cannot see,
my thoughts immersed in reverie.
It was nineteen hundred and sixty eight
when I saw, with her, the Violet Grape.
Psychedelic wonders, and yet,
how could the entire world forget?
Is it only me who still knows
about the band that curled the toes
of me and my angel, the wild rose?
She gave me, enclosed,
tickets for two,
saying one for me, and one for you -
we will ascend to heaven,
on concert day, October eleven.
Reminded by a purple envelope,
of a night and girl who went up in smoke,
as if they never once existed,
a strange thought to be resisted.
I can't avert my wistful stare,
from the envelope, unopened there.
Popsickle, sticky sweet;
Can he taste the cold
Violet grape separating
From the warm wooden stick?
Her penpal wondered
Such things, as he stared
At the popping-eye purple
Envelope, and could almost
Taste his American treat.
The scent and color of
Her tongue, tantalizing;
Was he too young to be
Fantasizing at sixteen.
The violent violet volition
Of his current position;
He licked his lips as he sealed
hers with a mint green peppermint
Envelope and grinned ear to ear.
Perhaps they will meet one day;
Or will she remain a tasty dream?
An envelope appeared through the front door
I felt excited by what my eyes saw
My hands were trembling, but for sure enough
'Twas addressed to me, I felt my young face blush.
As it was my first ever love letter
Nothing at all had felt any better
It had been sealed down with a loving kiss
Such lovely precious memories of bliss.
Violet grape purple, the envelope
A colour I loved, the colour of hope
A hue that still for me shines in the past
Of a love I truly had thought would last.
But for us us someone stood in the way
I had to send my dear sweetheart away
A right no one at all should ever have
To interfere with a romance like that.
It was a love that was never to be
Someone spoiled that hope for him and for me
I still have that colourful envelope
And the sad feelings it does still evoke.
The scent of lavender lingers within a nightly mist,
whilst illumination from a single candle bounces amongst the walls,
playfully dancing within rays of moonlight streaking through glass panes.
A single violet grape envelope rests upon a mahogany table,
delicately unfurled by a silver letter opener,
its contents splayed—
tracing fingertips on raised ink impressions engraved on the ivory paper.
Love seeps from curling words into a floundering bloodstream;
warmth courses through a resuscitated circulatory system.
A heart of stone pumps again, voices silenced in a swirling head.
Seconds tick down unwavering.
Memories once intangible form into realities.
When the sun rises, your kiss will be upon my lips once more,
your silken voice soothing my worries,
as your arms wrap around not just my body, but my soul—
forever entangled as one, forevermore.
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