Red is the feeling you get when he says your name

It’s the pulse he feels when he touches you

It is the way your heart swells when he says he loves you

Red is the way your mind is racing

your stomach is flipping when you see him

It’s a song the birds sing the morning of the wedding.

It’s the way your heart stops when you see him with

another

woman

Red is the shriek that pierces the atmosphere as you demand an explanation

It’s the feeling when you fight with him in couples therapy

Can you ever trust him again?

It is the car ride home

so rigid with tension it could cut cleanly through glass

Can it even be called home anymore?

It’s the feeling when you sign the papers, the color of the ink as it burns your signature into the paper with blood

going home to an empty house

Red is a color at the end of the spectrum

it is where they shove everything that cannot be explained

love, rage, desperation, lust, and hostility

are grouped with rubies, blood, and fire

Red is many things but it is the color of every memory ever associated with

him.