On your mulberry canvas
I inscribed my tangerine sun
Cached behind a dark rock
When violet dawn broke
Beneath orchid clouds
Your lilac brushstrokes arose
From steel-blue ocean
As gentle winds tickled
Platinum-hued ripples
I sprinkled orange glow
Where you embossed
Shades of ruby-desire
On pink-rose magenta
Floating on purple fire
In silence we held hands
Celebrating romance
Ablaze in our own aura
That you and I sparked
Holding daybreak in pause
July 25, 2018
NOTE: Sunrise in Marblehead, MA
Placed first in Standard contest #105 by Brian Strand
Marblehead Bill was too proud to cry.
He was too wild to tame, and too mean to die.
He'd spread his bed beneath the sky,
In any kind of weather.
Marblehead Bill, hardheaded as sin,
Would beggar the odds when he couldn't win.
One day he challenged iron fisted Ben,
And they stepped outside together.
Marblehead Bill, poor son-of-a-gun,
Unable to win, and too stubborn to run.
All that was left when it was done
Was a scrap of rawhide leather.
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