Purple: A Poem

My poetry challenge this month was to write a poem about purple, which happens to be a life-long favorite color. This is dedicated to my childhood best friend, Joyce Proctor (1960 - 2023). Inspiration is also taken from Jenny Joseph’s poem, Warning: When I Am An Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple. And no matter what it says below, I love every purple gift anyone has ever given me.

I unwrap the purple foil,

pop the cork

off the purple-labeled

bottle of Prosecco,

and ponder my relationship

with the color purple.

When I was ten years old

my best friend got a purple bedroom.

I mean, the walls were painted purple.

Dark purple.

Was it my favorite color before that

or did I steal it from her then,

because I wanted to be cool like her?

I wasn’t allowed to have purple walls

But once you proclaim purple as your color

People remember that

And give you purple things

Even if you secretly prefer turquoise

Or chartreuse.

My best friend and I lost touch for thirty years

And reconnected, as people do now, through social media. 

But cancer took her before we got to meet again in person

And before I got a chance to ask her

If she still liked purple.

But another question I ponder

as a pour the last of the Prosecco

into my purple-stemmed flute

is what to wear now that I am an old woman.

Shall I wear chartreuse?