Brown is Mostly Boring - March 27, 2026

they share four letters you know

(I’ll wait till you confirm)

that brown house down the street

exudes the friendliness of mud

another abode’s spread of gravel

looks like lifeless clumps of dirt

at least that dusty Hershey’s wrapper

held a few bites of chocolate delight

but then I see two gardener’s brown-eyed

brown-skinned labor, yielding palm tree

husks on burlap that match the color of

the half-filled brown plastic can

I could cheat and include the beige of sand,

the foundation color for everything desert

but with the addition of water it coalesces

into lovely damp brown patches

from which spring the greens and reds,

the purples, yellows and blues

that drive the boring out of brown