“Can You Forgive A Color?” - 7/19/2024

Paints and palette spread indulgently all over the floor
The memories of colors I haven’t quite used this way before
Lavender and purple - a fourth grade color-craze
The mean girls wore barrettes with ribbons
Violet = violence “don’t f-cking get in my way!”

Yellow is another I never really recruited
I was told very early on “it washes you out.
You’re too pale - it looks putrid…”
But the color of pee and the shade (apparently) not for me
Is also the color of sun’s fiery gaze daffodils honeybees
It is not too late to forgive and to praise you, golden oft-grievous hue!

Oh grey, grey stranger - a mix of black and white
I’ve long-neglected you, looked at you with spite
The polarization of absence and presence
The relegation of reluctance to severance
But now, somehow, you seem like relief
I’ll nurture a new relationship with you, sweet

Lastly but foremost hot pink (and variations)
Pale pink, the most overtly “feminine” of hue-gradients
My love-hate relationship with you’s been long
Bashed up toe-shoes in attic-trunk memories unsung

The color of in-your-face, riotous, frivolous
Girlish coquettish birthdays and ridiculous
Hot pink was never in my eyes the punk-rock
Rebellion it became when combined with black

But now I’m delighted, fascinated you’re ”back”
I can’t wait to enmesh you with other lost strangers
The colors above and beyond undiscovered
Left out of my boardroom shuttered from new dangers
Protected from promise restricted from access

I hereby unleash you at loving long last
With a heart healed strong by shame’s  cauterized past
To become who you are: part Barbie, part badass!
In all gloriousness: welcome you bravely back!