red
red
red,
they say.

why don't you get what we're trying to say?
why don't you try to do what we tell you?
why won't you talk to us?
why won't you listen
to reason?

honey
baby
darling
red?

because
the people that taught you to talk
are relative
to stone
walruses

because
i will not walk off a cliff
and willingly
smash against the harbor

because
you misplaced
your ears
and sewed them
onto
your brain

because
i wouldn't give you
a dog i didn't like
and you wouldn't take it,
anyway

because
what you define as reason
simply
isn't