Theme Prompt, Poetry, Writing Prompts, Writing Challenge

Fifty Shades of Pink

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written for dVerse Poets Pub where
our host, Lillian, invites us to “Get Out
Your Crayons and Color with Me!”

Image by Me & Preplexity

There is the pink of a newborn’s ear,
curled like a secret, a tentative tear,
and the angry pink scar of something broken,
the words that should’ve been left unspoken.

There is bubblegum pink, shameless and loud,
snapping its joy in the face of the crowd,
and the blush that betrays what the tongue won’t confess…
the heart’s little leak through the skin’s address.

There is the pink of flamingos, absurd and sublime,
standing in water like a bad pun in a rhyme,
and the pink of the sky when the day loses nerve
and bleeds into evening along the world’s curve.

There is hot pink …. lipstick, a stiletto, a dare ….
the color of women who don’t stop to care
what you think of their brightness, their volume, their fire.
Pink has a temper. Pink has desire.

There is the pink of a peony, heavy with rain,
and the pink of a tongue tasting sweetness or pain,
and the company pink slip, which is not pink at all ….
just the pale ghost of color before the big fall.

There is dusty rose, which is pink in a fog,
and salmon, which can’t quite commit to a blog,
and fuchsia, which is pink after two glasses of wine,
convinced it’s a purple, and doing just fine.

And then …. if we’re bold …. there is off-color pink,
the kind that makes proper society blink ….
the pink of a joke told just left of polite,
too rosy for daytime, too knowing for night.

Pink is a spectrum. Pink doesn’t behave.
Pink is the crayon both bashful and brave,
worn to a nub from the pressure of use,
still leaving its mark, still refusing a truce.

NAR©2026

This is “Pink” by Aerosmith

Get Out Your Crayons and Come Color with Me!

Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.


37 thoughts on “Fifty Shades of Pink”

  3. I’ve never been a lover of pink, Nancy but, after reading your poem, you may have changed my opinion… a little… especially with ‘the pink of a newborn’s ear, curled like a secret’, ‘the pink of the sky when the day loses nerve’, and ‘the pink of a peony, heavy with rain’ – I love peonies, they remind me of my grandfather.

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    1. Kim, so pleased to know my poem brought memories of your grandfather; what a lovely thought. In truth, I’m not a big fan of pink either, but after learning how many wonderful shades there are, I was excited to write about the color. I’m delighted you enjoyed my poem, especially the line about the peony. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me. 🌷

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  4. Excellent write on the color pink….great rhyming also which does not detract in any way from the sense of the poem. I am particularly smitten with stanzas 2 and 5! I enjoyed this very much!

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  6. I really enjoyed this and your way of looking at the colour. I loved the stanza

    There is dusty rose, which is pink in a fog,
    and salmon, which can’t quite commit to a blog,
    and fuchsia, which is pink after two glasses of wine,
    convinced it’s a purple, and doing just fine.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. Oh … I didn’t realise there were so many shades of ‘Pink’, and I adored your 3rd stanza my friend …
    “There is the pink of flamingos, absurd and sublime,
    standing in water like a bad pun in a rhyme,
    and the pink of the sky when the day loses nerve
    and bleeds into evening along the world’s curve.”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. Pink is probably my least favorite color, but I nevertheless enjoyed — even appreciated — your poem.

    And that Aerosmith video is one of the weirdest music videos I have ever seen. But I kinda liked it.

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