Color with Purpose

 
The girl with subtly purple hair
walks alone, and flips it in the air
down its waist-length flows a quiver
tail of fish in running river
 
She does not see a watcher there
but, if she did, another’s stare
would turn her blank, false-cheered, or sullen
outer shell uneasy, inner self a question
 
And she is trying out a string of parts
for slightly Purple Princess, with her arts,
the rest all simple, just that hair to hint
at her uniqueness, causing one to squint
 
Who goes here, and where goes she?
seeking to be called, to leave uncertainty
what awaits this temporarily purple person?
a hundred thousand days and wide horizon
 
She has one secret now, her own,
which told her choose her color of renown
 
                                                                                                (for L.P., 1990s)