Purged History of

and hookers wore their hair red army red

a decalogue of reddened fingernails

red-hot brassieres red nipples underneath

red welts where customers had stroked too hard

and later they sweated in the afterglow

of red smoked cigarettes whose embers sparked

the dark a cherry red their pillows propped

red dreams and workers stood in line to buy

red books and read red pages on the tram

to work each creed a monolith of red

each stop another passage through the red

that dyed December on May Day they sang red

their children marched in red parades behind

a convoy of red tanks the wind blew red

because the leaves could only leave the branch

as different shades of mandatory red

and all the maps were demarcated red

the red of flags of blood on cinderblocks

and wire shelves gaped empty in the stores

except for red in three varieties

and 1 + 1 would always equal red

and red the baby’s name first word first step

the scarlet fever when the pills ran out

the mouth that swallowed every cure for red