Red Door

March 29, 2026 Poet: Seth Kaplan Artwork: Windsor and Walker, 2025 by Julian Bell

Red Door

It’s the red door that welcomes.

Yes, the pistachio cotton candy

foliage that rises like cloud cover

in tonal harmony with a field

carpeted in cheery morning light

and dappled violet shadow. Yes,

always, to a white picket fence,

more accent than boundary.

But it’s a red door at the center.

And you don’t need to know the story

from early American history, how once

a door, much like this one, announced

respite for weary travelers of all natures.

You don’t need to know a red door

symbolizes the sacrificial blood

for a Christian Nation. Promise of shelter

for Passover Jews. Safe passage

for runaway slaves self-propelled

along the Underground Railroad.

What I want you to know is I have dreamed

of standing on the other side of this red door

as it opens to a world that greets me.

I have dreamed myself awake, squinting

into that morning sun as passersby, confusing

my expression for something more, smile & wave.

This is what comes from being bathed in warm colors.

And I want you to know I have traveled

these streets. I am not ignorant

of the grey hard road just beyond.

But there is a red door at Windsor & Walker.

A sun-soothed spring morning. A home

that welcomes and demands nothing in return.

Someone has made this. Someone has shown us

the way. And we have arrived here together.

Let us not make too much of it but let us

not pass it by unremarked, for it is remarkable.