Does That Count?

You look like a man who could wear pink, she said,

handing me the mask along with the compliment.

I have never thought of myself as a man who could wear pink

but the dental assistant thought so too

though in her T-shirt and jeans and muscly arms festooned

with inky blue tatts of scaly winged dragons she wasn’t wearing

an iota of pink.

She looked indie, edgy like I wanted to look but I was the man

who wore pink.

I wore it all the way to the car park then bravely wore it

in the nearby shopping centre where Pink was playing

over the P.A system.

Was that a sign?

Then went home with it still on.

The next day I put on a blue mask but I did wear

my mauve short-sleeved shirt when I went out.

Does that count?