The Difference Between Dulux’s ‘Pixie Green’ in Shade One and ‘Dublin Bay’ in Shade Four

Greener than the provisional licenses

Clutched like a finger in a newborn’s fist

More bare than the wintered trees

Stroked by the sky’s tight skin

You and I used to be green.

Now it is summer. We wilt for hours on benches.

Our mothers never seemed so young.

The trees never looked so green.