so your blood stops pressuring your doctor.
the color of the preschool joke
your friend makes over

and over in a sad, taxing game
of Chinese whispers: GREEN GREEN!
you PINK up the telephone and say, YELLOW! call us

callous, but you’re not picking up
your other friend, high as a kite
who makes a gun with his fingers and shouts

yer a commie! hands up!
you think of the PINKos
and how communism mixed with off-___ makes a nice pastel shade.

shady like the Moscow mule drawing blood
in crossword: proud to be Asian too
and confused why you can’t mix two oils to make a candy apple.

she worries primary paints will disappear with time.
clue: what happens when a ___ Russian strips
the secondaries from the world?

in preschool you learn how
to count from 1 to 10,
to repress your hang-ups,

to stop mixing up
patriotism, nationalism, and jingoism.
ans: this is how much you have to gain

full employment. for the GREEN
is a young YELLOW that grew to be BLUE.
call it a ___ Christmas, with

your hot depression era recipes, consumed
crossing swords in the times
with more off-color jokers.