Going Grey
This first grey hair, come early
Makes me smile
Sprouting on my head front and center
Proclaiming, "Rik, thou art mortal."
Prophets and seers have always known
How to make an entrance.
We hate grey because it signifies in-betweenings
Mixtures, transitions, impurities,
Moral ambiguities.
To be grey is to be sad,
And not quite sure what one is sad about.
Grey, they say, is gloomy, grizzly, ashen,
Dull, drab, dead.
But my grey-haired friends are artists, activists, trouble-makers.
If they are old people, they are crazy old people,
Mad aunts and nutty professors,
Wacky, "eccentric", and generally a little "off"
(Whatever it is they are supposed to be "on").
So if I am going grey
Make it battleship grey,
Greyhound grey,
Stormy sky grey.
Make it murky waters,
Can't-see-the-bottom,
Primordial goop
Grey.
rikpanganiban©
7/29/06
Makes me smile
Sprouting on my head front and center
Proclaiming, "Rik, thou art mortal."
Prophets and seers have always known
How to make an entrance.
We hate grey because it signifies in-betweenings
Mixtures, transitions, impurities,
Moral ambiguities.
To be grey is to be sad,
And not quite sure what one is sad about.
Grey, they say, is gloomy, grizzly, ashen,
Dull, drab, dead.
But my grey-haired friends are artists, activists, trouble-makers.
If they are old people, they are crazy old people,
Mad aunts and nutty professors,
Wacky, "eccentric", and generally a little "off"
(Whatever it is they are supposed to be "on").
So if I am going grey
Make it battleship grey,
Greyhound grey,
Stormy sky grey.
Make it murky waters,
Can't-see-the-bottom,
Primordial goop
Grey.
rikpanganiban©
7/29/06
