Pink Shutters
for David Trinidad
Pink Shutters — Pink Shutters!
Sixty-three pairs opened wide
in the narrow alley
as if Mao had once again proclaimed
"Let a hundred windows bloom"
— kiss by kiss.
Shocking Pink! Pagan Pink!
Milk of Magnesia and Panther Pink
seductively pulling us into the air
like a harem of wings
in which we desire and are perhaps afraid
to be lost forever.
We who have just left jobs,
families, packages below
while the eye continues to climb —
refuses, in fact, to come down from
this giddy Jacob's Ladder of Wild Pinks,
Wild Pinks ascending!
— Elaine Equi