The Color Purple

I choose a rich purple shade

bearing a substantive connection to my ancestry

the African deities who gave birth to our humanity!

it is said to evoke visions of nobility, royalty, wisdom

creativity, spirituality, mystery  magicality

a colorful synthesis of soothing blue and spirited red!

becking forth recollections of powerful deities 

it’s paler shades suggest romantic allusions

and a state of peaceful composure

while its darker shades  shift

to suggest a state of dejection and spiritual elevation

its rich darker shade signify wealth luxury grandeur  power

but it is double sided in that it can betoken  melancholy 

and frustration when applied superfluously 

I suspect for some men it can denote

some feminine qualities… rightfully regulating

the dominant notions of masculinity

while its violet shade can symbolize passion, ambition

creativity and mourning in some aspects of cultural identity

it can accentuates one’s individuality in a crowd

replete with antiquated notions of conformity 

its blending of red and blue can birth

deliberate intrinsic serenity and stability

it is a celebrated historical scarcity

purple pigment extracted from seal mollusks

enhanced its costly rarity attainable only to the aristocracy…

But now the color purple has been reclaimed

and integrated into our everyday commonality

and individuality attainable to anyone who

deems themselves fit for royalty!–

Jacques Fleury is a Boston Globe featured Haitian American Poet, Educator, Author of four books and literary arts student at Harvard University online. His latest publication “You Are Enough: The Journey to Accepting Your Authentic Self” & other titles are available at all Boston Public Libraries, the University of Massachusetts Healey Library, University of Wyoming, Askews and Holts Library Services in the United Kingdom, The Harvard Book Store, The Grolier Poetry Bookshop, Amazon etc… He has been published in prestigious publications such as Spirit of Change Magazine, Wilderness House Literary Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, Litterateur Redefining World anthologies out of India, Poets Reading the News, the Cornell University Press anthology Class Lives: Stories from Our Economic Divide, Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene among others…Visit him at:  http://www.authorsden.com/jacquesfleury.-