Heliotrope

Among a set of pencils
bright with vivid colors,
my favorite is stub of the bunch,
almost purple, not quite blue --
"heliotrope" etched along the shaft.
Whole sheets, taped or tacked to walls,
are shaded with this color.

Heliotrope -- mental salve,
bright with lightning plasma,
buzzing black lights,
lilacs misted with dew,
sweet with the smell of anise,
church incense.

"Helios" is tracked by heliotrope:
by day across the sky,
by night through solid earth,
and in the morning -- 
flitting butterfly wings
glinting purple foil,
damselflies darting
across a pond
on humming cobalt wings.

Scott Speck
01/30/2000