Having Painted One Wall Teal

The other three in ho-hum white 

are green with envy, singing the blues.

Teal, you are your own unsolved mystery.

In a blue haze you have infiltrated

the forest green, undercover, double agent,

exposed in your naked allure. Take me,

teal to your forbidden alchemy. Now

I see you, now I don’t. Bluesy sax

at dusk, increments of green pasture

swallowed by ocean, swallowed by sky.

How you frolic with light,

unfathomable dervish.

Deep blue-black sea met by emerald Dardanelles.

You are the marriage of two waters,

Ukrainian grain let through,

armistice of wheat, an irreconcilable peace

teal of tenuous negotiations. Neither all

green nor all blue but an anthem of teal,

the world needs your song from deep in the swirl.