Erin Lee Needs Purple Hair
Erin Lee woke up on a very beige day, with very beige hair on her very beige head. She ate very beige breakfast, and flipped on the news, and gulped down all the mean words the newspeople said.
About colorful hats and how they are crass, and what to do if you see a pink jumpsuit. She digested the news about whimsical folks, with colorful hair like me and like you
She didn’t like things she did not understand, and so bountiful color gave her a scare. So she wore nothing but beige, every day of the week, the only safe color that Erin would wear.
Then she looked at her neighbor, in teal and she said “You should only wear beige, it’s safe and it’s good.” She wrote rules for their shoes, their socks, and their pants And she marched them through the whole neighborhood.
Her neighbors got mad and angry and mean, They hollered and slammed their doors in her face. “I’m looking out, folks, for you and for yours,” She said, as she pamphleted the town with haste.
They screamed and roared at Erin for weeks, All the whimsical folks were flooded in rage But Erin Lee knew what the newspeople said That everything is better in beige.
Finally the people went back to their homes, too tired, with the rage in them gone. Their color went pale as they sobbed out their fight and they woke up in beige with the dawn.
They’d all turned like her, in the dead of the night Erin Lee was as pleased as could be. “They’ve stopped all their yelling,” she said to herself. “They must all be happy, like me.”
She delivered the news to the Reverend’s place, and she told him, “They’re happy at last!” He went to the window and he looked for a while as the beige people slowly walked past.
“And you?” asked the Reverend “Are you happy, too?” She opened her mouth, but could not reply. She looked at her hair and then to her shoes and she felt beige heartache from inside.
The Reverend nodded, and pulled out a pen, and he sat and he wrote nice and slow. He tore off the page, like a doctor, and said, “Here you are, Erin, off you go.”
She read through the note he’d written for her It was advice for Erin to do First, visit the drugstore across from the church And buy the purple box on aisle two.
You’ll want to follow the box as it says, and I also suggest you say a sweet prayer. Then you’ll watch as your world turns from beige, You’ll feel the joy coming straight from your hair!
Erin went into the store, nervous in her knees, and she found the box on aisle two. She brought it to the clerk at the front, And cheered “I’m getting a new hairdo”
That night in the shower, the water ran plum And she looked in the mirror and she stared. Her hair was purpler than any flower she’d seen, “It looks bright, and so good!” she declared.
Erin’s tub was now purple and so was her towel And her hair now had the same tint When she woke in the morning she stared at her pillow where she had left a purple head-print.
Then she stood at her door, and went back for a hat. Then took off her hat, and stood there some more. She’d been warned about colors like this, what would happen if she walked out the door?
Her hand on the knob she knew it was time, so she braced as she did something brave. She walked out of her house and into the light, and her purple locks shimmied and waved.
As she waltzed out, a neighbor looked up, and waved, and called over “Hiii!” Another one shouted, “Your purple looks right.” A kid yelled, “Cool hair!” riding by.
Erin waited for protest, but nobody yelled, They only cheered or gave her a grin. They said, “Erin Lee has purple hair,” And every “Hello, Erin.” felt like a win
The neighbors all treated Erin so kind, and she wanted to be kind too, it’d be new. Erin started out small, and held open a door, and smiled to them, “After you.”
Right next to the drugstore, she opened a shop and she filled it with pink, magenta, and blue, Because Erin Lee Needs Purple Hair But she’ll give you your favorite hairdo As she rinses your head, you’ll hear Erin say: Hairdo unto others as you would have them hairdo unto you.