Roadside colours
Pink, purple sunset colours,
Now autumnal yellow, brown.
Slowly fading:
Sun-wrought transmutation.
He’d worshipped that star.
Bronzed skin and
A girl on each arm
His laurel wreath.
Mimicking Mercury his nemesis:
Chariot overturned, smashed,
Its occupants scattered.
Leaves became petals.
Those with him also transformed:
Albertine complexions
Now porcelain white,
Mottled pink, purple.
* Richard Y. Ball is a pathologist from Norwich. He has only recently started to write for (his own) pleasure.
