Using paint names in poetry: Being Green

Just yesterday, I was exploring online paint chip collections–specifically Sherwin-Williams and Dunn-Edwards–in response to a paint chip poetry prompt. Then this morning, I took a look at the dVerse Poets Pub Poetics prompt from yesterday and it is to write a poem from the point of view of a color. It feels meant to be, so here’s my poem:

Being Green

What am I to you
when you admire my hue

The cool spring grass where
you lay your picnic blanket or
the grasshopper leaping
from the blades
to escape your hand
The gleeful spritz of electric lime
you add to your julep while
a lark tickles a breeze

And is the light true
when you see my value

As crisp as Romaine
or kale in your salad or
the luck in the clover
you pluck as you chew, feeling
the grip of envy tightening your chest
as you admire the parakeet flying

My value changes with the passing hours
like the roller-coaster dreams of day traders
I arise the delicate and dutiful lacewing
but may grow flat like Espalier against the wall
And somewhere in between
I sizzle with chroma,
letting my additive primary show
in the neon glow.

After night falls and I am no longer seen
I am the eerie call of the cricket
the chirp of the tiny tree frog
the needles falling
from the firs
in the wind
coating the driveways
carpeting the forest floors.