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Have you ever been stained?

Has the earth put orange socks upon your feet 
	to keep your heart warm?
Have the trees dropped secret messages in moist envelopes
	to mark your hands with brown knowledge of love?
Have you been changed by lying on grass
	and standing up green at points of contact?
Have you been kissed by purple berries who wish to taste cotton
	and so take their chances where they may?
Have you been marked with pink lines from thin, sharp things
	that call to you in passing with the only voice they have?

The world colors me, don't you know?
Each touch imprints me, even though
fugitive over the span of time.
I'll never be, and don't want to be,
	pure and white.


[October 2, 2007]