PAD Challenge Day 7

I really like both today's prompts from NaPoWriMo and Poetic Asides: (1) Write a poem in which everything is the same color, and (2) Write a poem in which two (or more) people interact without speaking. Here's my result:

Red Smile

He is riding the Red Line to work,

despite the morning urge to call in sick –

not under the weather, just tired

of the day-to-day grind, and not that far

from retirement. He lowers his newspaper

and finds a striking young Latin woman

opposite him. Her dress is as red as her lipstick,

her hair is a dark waterfall. Their eyes connect

and she flashes a warm smile. He smiles back.

He can feel his face flush red. He knows she’s

not flirting, because he’s not much to look at.

It was just a “good morning” smile,

a “have a nice day” smile that seems to come

naturally to her. Maybe she uses it all day

at her job as a receptionist or concierge,

or even a model. Their eyes don’t meet again;

she gets off two stops later, and he gets off

the stop after that. When he hits the street,

everything red speaks to him: sporty cars

whizzing through intersections, neon signs

on storefronts, some umbrellas that glide

through this drizzly morning. He carries

that red smile with him throughout the day,

and once in a while at his dreary desk,

he smiles back.