THE MADNESS OF PURPLE
Pliny proclaimed: pardon the mad desire for purple
rank it with gold in the realms of Gods
Sail south to Mediterranean middens
abandoned by Phoenicians recording
legions of Tyrian shellfish sacrificed
for one purple hat.
Justinian’s purple love coloured
Theodora’s royal robes
and chapel walls in Ravenna
In Constantinople night fell
secret purple wandered lost
Salute the rising sun
take the road
winding left of history’s page
find a pea plant in India pulsating
with molecules of Imperial Purpura
Turn left again seek the indigo road
to Egyptian mummies in violet edged shrouds
bound by empirical yearning
purple remains to capture life’s glory
The Hebrew God bade Moses regale
the fringes of prayer shawls with sacred
secret tekhelet – the colour of kings
Now wandering lost in purple desert
fringes remain forever white.
The mordant links
the circle turns
to fabric mills of Paris London Glasgow
purple partners with blood milk metal
purple resists while painters printers chemists
conspire and feckless fashion faddishly calls
to festoon ladies in lavender frocks
Sail south again where guano from Peru
paves the winding road
coal tar and aniline cobalt and ultramarine
dance over fabric
Wend west to home
Behold the Jacaranda
The madness of purple lives on.
