“Look what they’ve done to my hide, Ma!”

Fellow blogger Judy Dykstra-Brown was having a yard sale on leftover words over at her blog, so I’ve claimed a few and used them in this bit of whimsy.

SIMPLE GRAY

And what’s wrong with simplicity
is what I’d like to know?
Before this rank duplicity
I could humbly come and go

without the public squawking
just like a bunch of parrots—
or little children stopping
to stuff my mouth with carrots.

For someone thought — insane-ness!
They’d add some brilliant hues
and liven up my plain-ness.
So now I’ve got the blues!

These artists brought their teacher—
I think they stood in queue
to add, each one, some creature
and make me into a zoo!

Now I wear this dumb menagerie.
Can you tell my face is red?
My own mother wouldn’t know me!
Are those rain clouds overhead?