Heaven knows purple:
colour between colour it moves
between reds and blues, blushes
a lover’s heart, tinges a cardinal’s robe,
lavishes emperor’s might
yet cries out in blood.

Heaven knows purple, Jesus wore it,
Tyrian Royal purple, God’s colour,
first found in sea creatures
from the Holy Land.

Before spring,
after the rise of the dog star,
shells were caught from the deep,
then boiled in a leaden vessel.
Wool drenched in its dyes
laid out after sunrise, soaked up
the slow sunbeams
changing the colour
from a light to deep green,
fading to sea green then blue
until a purple remained.

Heaven knows why
this colour purple plays on the mind.
It is the colour of burning smack
on silver foil. Rising like incense
it purples prose, passages and patches,
erodes the greenbelts of style.

High
in a haze, the purple moon
not to appear over the top
disguises in ivory.