Poem: R & B by Patience Agbabi

Put on your red dress, baby,
Let me button up my blue jeans.
You revitalize me daily,
you're the life blood running through my veins.

You're the setting sun in my clear, blue sky
and in my midnight-blue you're the harvest moon.
Sometimes we argue and I don't know why,
you're Mars and I'm Neptune

You accuse me of quenching your fire:
I accuse you of blocking my flow
but you're the ruby to my sapphire,
you're the bright red cherry to my blue-black sloe.

You're the red rag to my raging bull.
You always see red when I sing the blues.
You're the ladybird tracing the ridge of my clavicle.
You're the lipstick on my collar, I'm your blue suede shoes.

You're the redbreast on my blue velvet.
I'm the aerogramme in your postbox.
You're my ruby slippers, you're my red carpet.
I'm the poet but baby, you're my thought-fox.

You're the red in enarmoured, you're wicked.
You're Scarlett O'Hara, I'm Betty Blue.
I'm the blue pill in the Matrix and you're the red.
You're my red phone bill, overdue.

You've got more kick than red rum,
You're red raw, red-handed, red-hot.
I metamorphose into blue nun.
You're love-lies-bleeding, I'm forget-me-not.

You say we were a mismatched couple
but I'm reminiscing too.
I remember how we made the colour purple
and my eyes are red from missing you.

Copyright © Patience Agbabi.
Canongate Books.