Mixing Colors for Lala's Elvis

On a paper plate we pour
acrylics
not the stained glass paint, but the
kind in the tube.
We shake 'em and I mix'em
because she says he is too pink
like a shrimp
and he needs to be tan-
 glowing against the black suit and the black guitar.

She puts  him on his back.  looking out the window.
I paint over pink skin--
"Too yellow."
"Mulatto Elvis," I say.
We laugh.
(Then I wonder if that isn't a nice thing to say.)
Adding some green and white,
I swirl the unlikely colors 
 think about what goes into our skin tones and the color of Elvis in Kissing Cousins.
As one cousin he is golden,
In Blue Hawaii, a dark tan,
In Roustabout, my favorite, he's peachy.

Lala is beginning to think we're not going to get the right mix with what she's got
I think she wants to take a nap, but I'm determined.

I brush the last color on
and he's white. "Too pale," she says
 "We don't want him to look dead do we now?" I ask.

Do we now?