The sun—a squirrel stealing color—
came through the window and took
a patch of orange from the couch,
turned my coat from black to brown.
Its sister sat on my porch-swing
eating my near-ripe tomatoes—
family of thieves.
The sun has taken blue from the old man’s eyes,
stashed its treasures in seeds,
tucked them away in clouds ready to burst—
Zinnias an arcoiris to drown the earth.
Danielle Hanson is author of The Night Is What It Eats (Elixir Press Prize), Fraying Edge of Sky (Codhill Press Poetry Prize), and Ambushing Water (Finalist, Georgia Author of the Year), and editor of Objects in This Mirror (Press 53) and a book of literary criticism. She is Marketing Director for Sundress Publications and Poet Laureate of Costa Mesa, California. She teaches poetry at UC Irvine.