Empathy Blues (AKA The Helper)

Empathy Blues

Shoulders squared, we sit
Facing each other.

You begin:
I feel something you don't feel
And it is blue.

You feel aqua, counters me.
Empathically, I drink some ink
To try to match your hue.

Not so much aqua, no.
More sky, less sea, I think,
Says you.

Well, azure then, perhaps.
(I take another belt.)

That's what I felt once--long ago,
You muse, but not just now.
I can't explain...more sturdy somehow,
More reliable, less pain.

With mounting eagerness
I sip a vial of violet,
Sure that I understand at last.
Compare our two transparent bodies now!

You sadly shake your head.
Ah, no, you'll never be
as blue as me.

I feel perplexed (betrayed?)
for now what shall I do
with all this blue?