Red — Summary

Now you’re leaving.

Behind a flurry of texts.

Everything I’ve loved turned to regret. What colour is red?

Smash my fist into my head.

Infatuation blues.

I was crazy for you.

Working crazily hard too.

Living on the dark side of the moon.

Rid me of red.

Rid me of blue.

Rid me of the flowers.

Out of focus.

Too much zoom.

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Someone is walking out of the speaker's life, and the goodbye arrives as a "flurry of texts" rather than a face-to-face conversation. What follows is a rush of raw, fragmentary feeling. The speaker admits to being "crazy" for this person, and says that everything once loved has turned to regret. The odd question "What colour is red?" suggests that even basic things have lost their certainty. Red might mean passion or anger, and blue clearly stands for sadness, the "infatuation blues."

The short, clipped lines give the poem a numb, jolted rhythm, as if the speaker can't hold a thought for long. There is a flash of violence in "Smash my fist into my head," and a sense of isolation in "the dark side of the moon." By the end, the speaker begs to be rid of red, blue and even the flowers, all the reminders of love and pain. "Out of focus" and "too much zoom" suggest a mind that can no longer see things clearly. The mood is dizzy, bruised and overwhelmed.

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