The Art of Complementary Relationships

Blue and Orange yearly join each other to review

their complementary relationship. Their bond

has been ambivalent for eons, back to when they

first discovered physics thought them opposite.

Red and green had better temperaments for this:

they saw immediately they’d do well at Christmas;

Purple working out its thing with Yellow wasn’t

any bowl of jello, but they managed: coloring

vast quantities of Easter Eggs had over years

permitted them to nestle side by side quite amicably

and undamaged. But Orange (who has learned

through centuries to be more positive about

the prospect than his partner) must each year

pursue new avenues of soothing reassurance

and diplomacy and tact to keep his moody hue-mate

acclimated to the fact that they’re a worthy duo.

Orange lightens every care when he reminds her

they’re the colors of the Knicks and Mets and each

New York World’s Fair. Now they’re collaborating

on a book about the art of cultivating marriage.

We last saw them discussing it as they were

gallantly conveyed  through Central Park’s October

orange trees and leaves and autumn’s azure skies

in a romantic horse-drawn blue and orange carriage.

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