A Color by Any Other Name

The result of two primary colors,
and opposite the third; additionally,
subtract red from black,
you know what I mean?
	Unless we’re describing light,
it’s the color green, see,
color,
depending on whether pigment or wave,
would be deconstructed differently
Green behaves by rules when projected
that aren’t the same when you paint,
such as 
mixing,
such as
creating white and black, and the creation
of contrast 

Surround a square of kelly green with bright orange on all sides
and compare this to a field of
teal, engulfing the same small square, side by side
	Stand in front and between
and stare at two greens invented by only our own mind
and suggestion, it would seem
as the two are the same kelly green

	And now, what of the word itself,
the letterforms, and the sound
and the years and years of use
to make sure a name for a color might mean
the right way,
the good way
Good and natural
Clean and green
A word has the hindrance of meaning,
unlike other tools, say a saw, the way it might sing
when played by a pale, thin, hollow-eyed ginger in spring,
at Folklife, collecting cash in the grass,
greenbacks, for their skill at the blues, learning such a mournful tune, and for sharing
something of unlikely meaning
because of unlikely sound

How often we use
the available instrument,
rather than the appropriate one, because it’s close:
a screwdriver to pry;
a rose for a rhyme;
the word green to sell fast fashion and fries

This tool
projects and absorbs:
a word, specifically, green
Easy to rhyme
Easy see 
Even the trash cans are green, and Oscar, and jealous lawns
especially against a red can of fuel, and one
sick enough to express how they feel is also green, yet

Earth Day is green,
recycling too, though those cans are usually a more primary blue,
and blue can even be seen as more green, in a certain context, I’ll note,
while green can be seen
as an enemy of blue in that same context;
the context of parties upon the news where the words we choose are votes
for a world we’d like to see
made with the same building blocks
as advertising and religion and romance and math–
words,
by definition defined and pronounced,
minted and coined to be used, tools
like green

Whether you whisper or whether you shout,
green can elicit both hate and hope,
allow you in, or leave you out

	Such a shame that green has been put to such use, though
a color by any other name would be just as confused