“Color / Off-Color” by Emily Pease (Fiction ’00)

Emily Pease, a 2000 fiction alum, was recently featured in Rattle. Read an excerpt of Pease’s poem “Color / Off-Color” below:

Color / Off-Color

Fulfilled, we stripped the bed and washed it all—
the sheets and pillow cases, the pretty dresses
we wore while dancing, yours the bronze
orange, mine the dappled pink you say
I look sexy in—plus the blue cape you
swung last night like a lasso, doing your
theatrical cha-cha. We let all that cotton

mix in the machine, hummed to the tune
of slosh and spin. It was so hot, even
the early morning air said Morocco.
Half-naked, we made iced coffee, ate
the remaining mangos. Later, when
we headed out to the line, I said you
might at least put on shorts, and you

answered, let the neighbors enjoy.
Who couldn’t love a woman like that?

Read the rest of this poem here: https://www.rattle.com/color-off-color-by-emily-pease/