The speaker addresses a "Lavender Man" who returns home exhausted from work and collapses on his bed. Though his sheets are actually plaid, they feel like a suffocating lavender haze that numbly cradles him. The speaker tries to lift his spirits with colorful gifts, but he remains in a defeated, lavender-colored state of discontent and powerlessness. As a pale man of accepted privilege, the speaker urges him not to accept defeat like others of darker skin who struggle more, and risk staying lavender or allowing the dulling grey to overtake him.