I am dazzled by the array of colors
the mute vegetables offer. Carrots
are orange, you say, but sometimes
purple or white. Peppers push out
not only simple shiny green cheeks
 
but turn yellow or chocolate, purple
or white or scarlet. Tomatoes come
in every shade but blue. Sometimes
they’re striped like tigers. Sometimes
they blush rosy like truly ripe peaches.
 
Even eggplants can be pink or white
though I prefer those glossy purple
breasts. Lettuce sings maroon or
speckled ruby or brownish. But
some veggies are staid and won’t vary:
 
parsnips, peas, leeks, artichokes,
just quiet hues of green and white.
Myself, I wear any color by mood.
I don’t believe in stinting. I want
plumage as bright as a peacock.
 
Spill the rainbow over me. Age
will not dim me. I want to go out
in a sunset– bars of cloud reflecting
royal purple through green to sulfur
still blazing at the end of days.