Guillotine Reds and India-Ink Blacks

1 min readAug 16, 2022

I envy others a lot.

Envy real hard.

Wait.

I’d like a small white home

With a small kitchen,

With a just-enough bedroom.

Enough for a queen bed and chest of drawers.

A white-walled living room.

Empty but for an empty, white ceramic coffee cup.

You know, like the ones you find in truck-stop diners.

An empty coffee cup that I can place on top of a white fireplace mantle

Next to a single red and black cowboy boot.

A Stendahl boot. A boot that dreams French dreams.

Of revolution. Of Danton and Rouget de Lisle

Of Darnay, Carton and Manette.

Guillotine reds and india-ink blacks

Her boot.

With her initials, “R.W.” stitched into the back

A single boot alone

With a single silver spur.

A single silver spur.

An empty boot alone

That I can fill with artificial flowers.

Wait.

I miss R.W.

I miss her something fierce.

Wait.

Written by Maurice Kaehler