when I told my mother

that my favorite color

was purple

she said it was

an ugly color

she said all boys like me
should love blue
the color of battleships
and jet planes

she said that all boys like me
should play football
under blue skies and
swim in blue trousers

she said that all boys like me
should squash their blue
tears when their blue toys
are broken and
when their mother tells them
to pick another color

so I held back my tears and
picked the color red but my mother
said I couldn’t
pick red because that
was for girls.

she said that all girls like her
were girls on fire and
wore red lipstick
every day.

she said that all girls like her
had eyes that turned
red after midnight
movies.

she said all girls like her
didn’t want to dress like
a boy in blue and
that was the color
for me

but she doesn’t know that

the real reason 

why I can’t pick
a primary color
is because

I am neither red
nor blue

I am the two colors combined.