The Colour of Words & Poem to a Leaf, two poems by Josef Lesser

Tell me the colour of words,
the rainbow phrases
splashed across the daily canvas,
like when seagulls skate through lilac clouds
and desert crabs hone their calligraphy skills
across the burnt sienna sand.

Tell me the colour of words,
the colour of slavery,
the canvas bondage
stretched across the human frame,
the blue of sleepless veins,raw red skin
the black hole mind
that once roamed free.
The priest wears black,

mourners dress the same

candles burn a yellow flame.

Observe the colours of drought,
the ransacked land
rust-red, grey revolving to white
the aborted seed, bone scraps
in the coffins of the parched streams
faded greens of fading leaves.
But what of thirst,
tell me the colour of thirst,

rainbow lips and tongue

eyes devoid of hues.

Tell me the colour of dreams,
the faceless gathering a picnic

in your own meandering mind,

tints of every kind.

Ripe tomatoes red, blue feathers blue.

But what of truth,
tell me the colour of truth,
the colour of trust
of love
of pain
of hope
of touch
of fear
of prayer
of wrong of right.

Tell me the colour of words,

the pigments of life
in the dark and the light.

how do you write a poem to a leaf?
same as you would compose one to the dead,

start with the innocent green of youth
then branch out from the family tree in the fall

terminating with death and decay in the rain
soaked earth, not unlike the young soldier

face down in the mud tinting crimson grey fields
once fresh with the innocent green of youth.