earth · burnt or raw, from umbria
umber lives in the basement. it lines the joins of the staircase,
the edge of a photograph that has been kept too long in a drawer, the
cover of a book whose title has worn off.
it is what the season leaves behind once the bright reds have rotted. it is
what leaf looks like in a press, three years on. it belongs to the season
after a season; to the room where the wood has darkened against itself.
ochre at dusk is umber.