Beyond Childhood

Beyond Childhood

by Helen Losse

I wish I was little again,
when the hardest choice
was picking a crayon.
—A Facebook Group

Red fire. Purple shadow.
The orange sun. A yellow bird.
Complexity of choice becomes
a multi-colored word phrase.

Outside after snow,
trees blossom in white and pink.
Grass grows by the driveway.
As I bend to touch green blades,

the back of my hand brushes
violets, so I ask, “What color is
joy?” Silence is invisible
but closest to deep-ocean blue.

Some words like hands
must be kept to oneself.
But if I use my outside voice,
will a rainbow appear?

Bio: Helen Losse is the author of 4 collections of poetry, including her most recent, Better with Friends. She is Poetry Editor of The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature and lives in Winston-Salem, NC.