Magenta

From red to violet

Decreasing in wavelength

Increasing in frequency

Red on one end, violet on the other

A clean, linear spectrum

Yet we must remember

Colour is more than just the visible light spectrum

Outside of human perception

Let’s not forget

Such only describes spectral colours that conveniently ignore 

Magenta, the wild card

A human marriage of two ends

Distinct from green

The linear fusion

In-between

No one paints with a palette 

Of nanometers or terahertz

The colours we truly care about 

Are those inseparable 

From interpretation and emotion

Hue, saturation, lightness

And attributed meaning

The colours we truly care about 

Are those we perceive 

As humans

It would be incredibly stupid 

To pit colours against each other 

As if they existed on two ends 

Of the same axis

When the spectrum of opinion

Is a triggered porcupine

An explosion of variables with more trajectories and inconsistencies

One can ever measure

It does no one favours 

To reduce ourselves and others

To flattened colours

Used to describe barely anything half the time

With no interest to clarify 

What really is in between

It’s not about 

The best of both worlds

The better of two evils

Or two ends meeting in the middle

It’s not two distinct ends

There is always neither

And combinations that can exist off

The inadequate spectrum

Numbers themselves don’t lie

But the analysis that determines 

Whether what you measure 

Reflects what you care about

Can absolutely lie

And guess what

Colours are even worse than numbers

So if colour is used to encompass

Values, opinions and ideologies

Then let’s talk about those

Instead of prematurely stopping

At surface clashes in colour

Only to find that the colours

Were never univocal to begin with

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[Part 2] POLSCI 101: “Don’t be a fool”