Atrophy
=======

* Rebecca C Lee

*   poetry

> > Before there was red, there was orange.
> > 
> > A generation of quiet that lived pale by comparison,
> > 
> > the 1950s were muted.
> > 
> > Dramatics were hidden.
> > 
> > Mystery was timeless.
> > 
> > The frenetic was only for youth.
> 
> > Orange was a presence that shot straight from elastic into a future that hoped for heaven.
> > 
> > Into living room rugs and 70’s furniture,
> > 
> > an intensity took its place.
> 
> > Orange was not enough.
> > 
> > Its colour, faded. Its ambition, muddled.
> > 
> > Its pallor, too tarnished to blush.
> 
> > In a stratagem to overthrow what was once alive and above,
> > 
> > a new generation took place.
> 
> > “Mom, it’s not a retirement home, it’s a village.
> > 
> > A community. A life of recumbent safety”

## Footnotes

*   Competing interests None declared.

*   Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.