Vermillion, Which Is a Technical Distinction

The doctor was talking.

I was nodding, watching the sharps container

mounted to the wall above the sink —

that particular red of the biohazard symbol,

the three-lobed shape, the black outline.

I looked it up later.

It's not red. It's vermillion.

Which is a technical distinction

nobody makes in a clinical context,

but I kept thinking about it —

how there's a name for the specific orange-lean

of that color, how someone decided once

this is the color for what might kill you,

and someone else decided

that color has a name, and the name is not red,

and the name is vermillion,

and I was sitting in a room

where both of those decisions

had come together on a wall

and the doctor was still talking

and I was still nodding

and none of this means anything

except that I was in the room

and the red was not red

and I noticed.