pigment

PIGMENT

You’re so fleeting
all the treasure in the world is nothing
breathe on the pillow
dream - ephemeral with me
there’s only now

so-called precious jewels
delusion in cold stone
greasy strips of money
mock my Life force sold on the market
humiliate me
give me the power to humiliate
to rip and tear from the Earth
to fill my bottomless greed
my empty aching want
for
gucci, versaci, trinkets
status among the insensate
struck dumb by the fury of need
adrift on the city street
eyes roving, seeking what
no one knows

when you choose a paint
it's for the pigments
the little girl told me
each note on the piano
gives itself away back into the silence from which it came
given life by your hand
received by your ear
an imprint
a raindrop
each one
sends ripples
widening circles
lapping the muddy bank
golden fish
ancient of days
swirl in the mud below
mouths gaping

each second passes
marked by metal disks
serrated teeth
mindlessly spinning
in a small plastic box
snick
the alarm shrieks to remind me...

But seriously, I have to admit that I plagiarized the "snick" from Stephen King. It's just the perfect sound for what my alarm clock does before it goes off. Also, the thing about "the ancient of days," I don't know where it's from but I'm sure I've heard it before. It could be from one of those old Saturday morning cartoons. But the koi in the pond here at my work are really old and it just seems right for them.

Pig"ment (?), n. [L. pigmentum, fr. the root of pingere to paint: cf. F. pigment. See Paint, and cf. Pimento, Orpiment.]

1.

Any material from which a dye, a paint, or the like, may be prepared; particularly, the refined and purified coloring matter ready for mixing with an appropriate vehicle.

2. Physiol.

Any one of the colored substances found in animal and vegetable tissues and fluids, as bilirubin, urobilin, chlorophyll, etc.

3.

Wine flavored with species and honey.

Sir W. Scott.

Pigment cell Physiol., a small cell containing coloring matter, as the pigmented epithelial cells of the choroid and iris, or the pigmented connective tissue cells in the skin of fishes, reptiles, etc.

© Webster 1913.