My True Colors
By John Herlihy

I never show openly my true colors,
Far too precious to give freely away.
Inner turmoil sometimes emerges,
Such rawness should be kept at bay.

People are much too forthcoming
With their every fear and whim.
They whinny like restless horses,
Staring into darkness with faces grim.

Admittedly, we suffer ups and downs,
Our precarious lives just full of turmoil.
But that doesn’t entitle us to always frown,
Or grimace fiendishly like a church gargoyle.

No, the emotions represent various hues;
But all are reflective of the moody blues.
I try to keep myself as even and neutral,
Using the colors of the day as most useful.

Red always flashes out as a livid anger;
Depression appears as a murky blue.
For some reason, green suggests envy;
While yellow stirs up a coward’s brew.

And let us not forget the dreaded black;
The color of darkness offers its own fear.
Followed by white to take up the slack;
Its color awash in a vainglorious veneer.

But I do show my true colors in poetry.
Various shades of pink, blue and gray.
A moment in time can often emerge,
To be highlighted before fading away.

This poem happens to be a case in point.
I was walking quietly by myself by the bay.
Suddenly an idea emerged for me to anoint,
With rainbow colors before they fled away.