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.