Flowers Are Red

Flowers Are Red
by Harry Chapin
© 1978 Five J’s Songs (ASCAP)

The little boy went first day of school
Got some crayons and started to draw.
He put colors all over the paper
‘Cause colors was what he saw.
The teacher said,
“What you doing, young man?”
“I’m painting flowers,” he said.
“This is not the time for art, young man.
And anyway, flowers are green and red.
There’s a time for everything, young man.
A way it should be done.
You’ve got to show concern for everyone else
For you’re not the only one.”

And she said,
“Flowers are red, young man.
Green leaves are green.
There’s no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen.”

But the little boy said,
“There are so many colors in a rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in a flower
And I see every one.”

Well the teacher said, “You’re sassy.
There’s ways that things should be.
And you’ll paint flowers the way they are.
Now repeat after me.” And she said,
“Flowers are red, young man.
Green leaves are green.
There’s no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen.”

But the little boy said again,
“There are so many colors in a rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in a flower
And I see every one.”

Well the teacher put him in a corner.
She said, “It’s for your own good.
And you won’t come out till you get it right,
And are responding like you should.”

Well finally he got lonely
Frightened thoughts filled his head.
And he went up to the teacher
And this is what he said:
And he said, “Flowers are red.
Green leaves are green.
There’s no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen.”

Well time went by like it always does,
They moved to another town.
And the little boy went to another school.
This is what he found:
The teacher there was smiling.
She said, “Painting should be fun.
And there are so many colors in a flower.
So let’s use every one!”

But that little boy painted flowers
In neat rows of green and red.
And when the teacher asked him why,
Well this is what he said. And he said,

“Flowers are red.
Green leaves are green.
There’s no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen.”

But there must be a way
To have our children say,
“There are so many colors in a rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in a flower
And I see every one.”

This song appears on Tom Chapin's Join The Jubilee CD.

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