A monk
A liqueur
A couple
The yellow green green yellow of liqueur green chartreuse and liqueur yellow
chartreuse
The two sit across from each other in public a moment before the relationship
transcends the platonic in an outdoor tan brown cream woven
The one with a wilted tongue sips his drink and sounds out its name, a new shade of
green yellow yellow green
The other feels the warmth of the sun’s glare in this distinction and the burn
Four-hundred years prior, a young Philip earns his cognomen (the Bold) in battle
with his father, then acquires land for the tombs of his dynasty (later damaged by
Revolutionaries & Looters), and in opposition to this is magenta: in honor of the
Battle of Magenta
Magenta’s kindred, fuschia from fucus from phykos meaning seaweed: sea wrack for
red paint: rouge—both crimsons of a wrack, eventually, and not directly opposite is a
stone castle covered in moss: decay decompose and bending bog bogging boggart
with mouth in mire: mud and to moss—also, inclusive in enchantment of an old
castle to an outsider of place or time
Or petal
and the subtle sepal
If she had known turquoise means Turkish stone it would not have been hanging on
her neck or would it
Match the palest part of the flower
pale purple quell launder
Palepurple #bd9bbc
Lavender #cdaaf2
Lightpurple #c687ff
Periwinkle #8e8f3
Lightpink #ffdee9
Palepink #ffdee9
Mauve #a0678
Violet #9327ef
Lilac as a color name, attested from 1791; as a scent, from 1895; as an adjective,
pale pinkish-purple
Palepurple #bd9bbc
Lavender #cdaaf2
Lightpurple #c687ff
Periwinkle #8e8f3
Lightpink #ffdee9
Palepink #ffdee9
Mauve #a0678
Violet #9327ef
Lilac sofa
Lilac Cadillac
Lilac sand
Lilac moon
Lilac light
Lilac shadow
Lilac breath
inspired by the Nile River,
meaning violet
from the flower
Violet and purple: revolutionaries with their own place between blue
and red yellow blue: the main players, the base, the most range
Purple inevitably shows through the hallway walls
once blue, red, and yellow have been understood—
which reminds me, chartreuse sits across from violet and lilac
the two too strong to protest the complementary
Most daze, one thinks
amber at the sound of amethyst and in the color war, is it every
body against the primaries or all those opposite to their spectrum—
see how much I took?
Moss and stone
Moss and castle
Moss and monk
Moss and moss
Moss and swamp
Moss and not loss
From one to the next you are home and then wondering about an attack a personal
physical attack
Lilac violet blush rose honey buzz—in this motion, sad scent music: moist, dead, and
flower
And the humidity of lilac
*
Nanor Lara Abkarian earned her MFA from Mills College and has worked as a teacher, tutor, production manager, and 30-second actress in a feature film. She lives and writes in Los Angeles.
Photo illustration by Jessica Herrera
Wednesday, November 9th 2016