Scarlet

Scarlet

Luci Shaw

“Our red-berry-sour Kousa aflame...”
— Paul Mariani in All that Will be New

How color speaks its name into the brain,
against forgetting. And how it flourishes just now
in the words of our veteran poet. In our own
front yard in Spring my Kornus Kousa blazed
with brazen pinks that ripen to Fall’s blood-red
berries, whose blush is impossible for us to ignore.

Today, carving the roast chicken for dinner, my knife
slipped and blood poured its bright trickle, ardent
as the feathers of the cardinal snacking at our feeder
this very evening. Ah, but what is a bird or a brief cut
compared to the annual blaze of Dogwood berries?

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Luci Shaw
Poet & Editor

Luci is Writer-in-Residence at Regent College in Vancouver, and the author of more than thirty-five books, including Scape, Sea Glass: New & Selected Poems, and her new collection, Angels Everywhere.

Photography by Leandra Rieger