Michele Santamaria

Technicolor Sonnet

To be the emerald of a mallard's neck,
to be redder than the idea of red,
Technicolor drenched, to be rice steeped
in saffron threads, to be shoveled into
a mouth greedy for color, masticated,
swallowed, to become nothing, no, rather,
to be blank, blank as snow, to be canvas
stretched from wall to wall, to have images
projected onto me, become the jilted
suitor in "When Ladies Meet," the suitor
who proclaims, I want to be the cream
in her coffee, not the dust beneath her feet,
to be exactly what she wants and needs.
Just to be longing. That would be it.

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Michele Santamaria’s poems have been published in Honey Literary, Sugar House Review, Bayou Magazine, The Canary and Bellingham Review, among others. She is an assistant professor and Learning Design Librarian at Millersville University in Millersville, Pennsylvania.