first published in The London Magazine Apr/May 2005;

in collection Lipstick ,2007, Greenwich Exchange ISBN 978-1871551-94-5

Lipstick

In war time women turn to red

swivel-up scarlet and carmine

not in solidarity with spilt blood

but as a badge of beating hearts.

This crimson is the shade of poets

silenced for speaking against torture,

this vermilion is art

surviving solitary confinement,

this cerise defies the falling bombs

the snipers taking aim at bread-queues,

this ruby’s the resilience of girls

who tango in the pale-lipped face of death.

Maggie Butt

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