The green of life and
The brown of death
Lie below.
Below the blue of air and
The white of heaven
That en-domes the kingdoms.
The pinprick of yellow illuminates all
then retreats to orange,
to red,
to black,
and with it the others withdraw.
But where is the purple?
The purple that’s bold and bright!
Can it be that nature is afraid of
A certain bandwidth of light?
Only the most daring of flowers
Will don this defiant tint
As the rest of nature huddles
Around more passive pigments.
Many people are hesitant about
Garnishing themselves with purple,
Afraid that the color will
Distinguish them as individual.
They fear that which
adorns the royal,
accents the eccentric,
anticipates with lent.
They fear those with
the depth of blue,
the desire of red,
who have seen the darkness of black.