Saffron Life



I lived a saffron life
a midnight howl

walking winding alleyways
of bustling markets
following trails past pails of scuttling
cobalt crabs and buckets of jasmine rice

into the heart of the safflower scent

I lived a saffron life plaiting my past
from spiceberry silk

a velvet widow spider
in a vacant window frame
weaving gossamer curtains
to be pulled up or down depending
upon my darkest or lightest mood
or the squall of the Caribbean wind
or the direction of the rooftop
weather vane

I followed shadows of patterned cloth
swaying like dancers holding tight
to wooden clothespins 
straddling the frayed line

down a crooked path towards
arms outstretched
into the sun silk center
of the labyrinth

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Loretta Oleck is a poet and psychotherapist. Her poetry has been published in reviews/journals including The Westchester Review, Feminist Studies, The Mom Egg, Laughing Earth, Poetica Magazine, Still Point Arts Quarterly, Marco Polo Arts Magazine, among numerous others. More recently her work has been read at The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, as well as at other venues in and around New York. She holds a Masters degree in Creative Writing from New York University.

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