Pinkest Pink

by Earl Thomasson

for Christmas, I bought my semi-artist friend 

a bottle of the pinkest pink paint. 

it's made by the creator of Vantablack, 

a color so dark it absorbs all light and is a void in space. 

Pinkest Pink is the opposite- 

it wants to overflow its boundaries  

and the sight of it brings sweetness to your tongue. 

it is a color untranslatable into words. 

seeing it through a screen is an injustice to its pinkness. 

anyone living in the brightly colored modern world could imagine their  

perfect pink 

and it still wouldn't be pink enough. 

it is the archetype every pink is based on. 

every use of pink in the past wishes they were this pink. 

it is the taste of bubble gum pink, 

the feeling of watching an ad pink, 

Valentine's Day love kind of pink 

(the word 'pink' is becoming oversaturated,  

isn't it? now you're getting it!). 

the Himba language has 'grue', not green or blue, 

but they describe color vividly with sensations, light, purpose. 

someday soon pink will not just be 'pink'. 

something new will be uttered to let you know  

how pink the pinkest pink is. 

this paint is a warning of how hyper we are making things, 

how we must give a fuck about everything, 

how our gumballs must be the *essence* of pink.