Joe Landson: Daydream in Color

Every time I wonder if I'm really helping anyone, I daydream about the Nina Simone Brigades.

Like all shadowy social justice groups, they have a fearless and beautiful leader: a young English Jewess in combat boots.

In the gray dawn, they ambush the venal and pompous with rainbow paint guns, darning them to eternal coloration.

At yellow midday, they guide refugees to shelter, shedding noontime on their plight.

On orange afternoons, they comfort friends with timeless wisdom, fresh fruit from an ancient tree.

Come reddening dusk, they sing and dance in sad ecstasy.

By inky midnight, they have parachuted elsewhere, and only our pale purple prose recalls them.