Amy Barone | Two Purple Poems

Purple

 

Like a desert flower,

they surprise, pop up

on islands of late winter mud.

 

Burst through bare patches of grass.

Symbols of royalty and pride.

Crocuses robed in purple with yellow tongues.

 

Hungry for a new season.

My company on a sunny March day

as the days stretch out.

 

All in wait for more color, light, life.

Easing our loads. The promise of green.

A time of hope.

 

 

______________________________

 

Hyacinth

 

A scent sends me back —

where spring was a destination.

 

Nature nurtured. Violet flowers

emerged in a secret spot,

trumpets of sweet perfume.

 

Today I placed a potted hyacinth

on the grave of loved ones

who tended gardens.

 

 

______________________________

Amy Barone’s most recent full-length poetry collection, Defying Extinction, was published by Broadstone Books in 2022. SPD recognized it as a Poetry Bestseller of the Month (July 2022) and an SPD Recommended Book. We Became Summer was released by New York Quarterly Books in 2018. Barone has also published two chapbooks, Kamikaze Dance (Finishing Line Press) and Views from the Driveway (Foothills Publishing). Her poems have appeared in Muddy River Poetry Review, New Verse News, The Ocotillo Review, Paterson Literary Review and several Brownstone Poets anthologies. She belongs to the Brevitas online poetry community. Originally from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, she currently lives in New York City and Haverford, PA. Follow her on Twitter where her handle is @AmyBBarone.

Amy Barone | Orange Is My New Black

Orange Is My New Black

I’m tossing black from my world —
black clothes, black cars, black moods.
Banishing dread and gloom.

Black was cool at sixteen and slimming at thirty.
Now I’m occupying orange-hued vibes,
loosening the shackles to dark tones.

I’m deporting colorless lingerie and sex.
When I sleep, instead of jumping into black puddles,
I’m going to emerge from tangerine dreams. Glowing.




Reprinted with author's permission from We Became Summer (NYQ Books)


______________________________

Amy Barone’s latest poetry collection, We Became Summer (New York Quarterly Books), was released in 2018. She has also published two chapbooks, Kamikaze Dance (Finishing Line Press) and Views from the Driveway (Foothills Publishing), and is an active member of  both PEN America and the Brevitas forum for short poetry.  Her poetry appears in Paterson Literary Review, Philadelphia Poets, Sensitive Skin, and Standpoint (UK), among other publications. Haling from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, she now hangs her little orange dress in New York City.

Amy Barone | Yellow

Yellow

The day after fashion designer Gianni Versace

was found murdered in Miami,

 

I rushed to the thrift shop on Milan’s Via Cavour

to retrieve the bright yellow cashmere jacket

 

I had consigned. I wanted to keep a memento

of Versace’s talent, of my fleeting fling with fashion.

 

Today when I wear that jacket on the streets

of Manhattan, people wave and yell out.

 

It makes them smile.

 

Reprinted with author's permission from We Became Summer (NYQ Books)


______________________________

Amy Barone’s latest poetry collection, We Became Summer (New York Quarterly Books), was released in 2018. She has also published two chapbooks, Kamikaze Dance (Finishing Line Press) and Views from the Driveway (Foothills Publishing), and is an active member of  both PEN America and the Brevitas forum for short poetry.  Her poetry appears in Paterson Literary Review, Philadelphia Poets, Sensitive Skin, and Standpoint (UK), among other publications. Haling from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, she now hangs her yellow Versace jacket in New York City.