a perpetual pentimento

Pentimento  (Wikipedia)

"the presence or emergence of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over". The word is Italian for 'repentance', from the verb pentirsi, meaning 'to repent'.

Layer I: The Primrose Path

I dye my socks and wear my thoughts

identify with neat mood rocks

does red or blue on buttons rouse

a higher click-through rate?

flamingo skies and hazel eyes

they nod me off to pretty lies

of painted primrose paths

repenting pigments I abate

Layer II: repaint Yourself every infinitesimal instant

Contemplate the colour of

a mirror

can you see her?

paper white with scarlet fever

don't believe it

that's not me.

Then what the hell's the colour

of the mirror

if not clearer

than the hues reflected dearer

none of which it

wants to be.

(fuck, it's hot in here)

Layer III: The Original Painting

take off my clothes

peel back my skin

and navigate the layers

of decade-old crusty acrylic

i strip

against the violent chroma

and find the blank canvas

had already been coloured

by ATCG sequences

[i think i understand now why art restorers are so interested in the painting behind the pentimento]

Layer {Syntax ERROR}: Baker-Miller Pink

the salesman at the Home Depot

wants to know if i want eggshell white or ivory

i tell him, i'll have Baker-Miller Pink on my walls

at least it seems to

stop

the prisoners

from going

mad.