Armor

Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect gave us the photo below for the Monday Poetry Stretch.

This photograph was taken by lijojohnson and is protected under a Creative Commons license. You may include this photo with your poem as long as you include this attribution on your blog.

When I saw this picture, the first thing I thought of was this:

I want it to be a soft green, not as blue-green as a robin's egg, but not as yellow-green as daffodil buds. Now, the only sample I could get is a little too yellow, but don't let whoever does it go to the other extreme and get it too blue. It should just be a sort of grayish-yellow-green. … Is that clear?

-- from Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)

And then I got down to the business of poetry-writing.



Armor

Flashy, aren't you, in your high-end armor?
All safe and secure inside, padded and protected,
with articulated joints to cover the soft parts
and even multi-lens goggles to help you see better.

I'm glad you are safe, with this strategic advantage
over your enemies and their outmoded gear.
I've seen them in their basic black and basic brown.
No shine left in them and no way to upgrade.

While you are buzzing away out there,
safe inside your green-gold armor,
watch out for everything. You never know
who is watching you watch them.

Don't forget you stand out now, shiny
against the leaf, no longer invisible
on the wall, in clear sight on that fruit.
A perfect target for a heretofore unimagined foe.