Quinacridone Magenta

by Harrison Fisher

1

At the Serabit mine,

Canaanites absorbed what the sounds

of Egyptian rebuses on stelae meant,

took that back to Canaan

as phonemic writing that another

Canaanite people, the Phoenicians,

who were seafaring traders, would bring

to Rome and Greece with their wares

2

—dark red,

cool, lightfast, after centuries cool,

dark red-violet tin

tint

tinct

Permanency Rating A: Quinacridone magenta,

overbearing in pinks, blustery on turquoises—

magenta with no spectral wavelength,

color created by the mind