WHAT IS COLOUR?
Yellow is a sunny morning, sweet as pineapple,
creamy as vanilla ice cream.
It lives in the tropics and smells of sweat and coconuts.
In a church choir it’s the soprano voice heard over the chorus.
Blue is a dip in a waterhole. Despite its bitter taste,
it’s refreshing as the ocean’s breath.
It preaches gospel, New Orleans jazz, boogie-woogie piano
and the double bass that thrums in syncopated rhythm.
When you mix blue with yellow
you get to roll in summer grass,
hear the hum of sap rising and secrets
whispered across a forest canopy.
Red is a siren, urging you to pull over.
It is your rapid heartbeat, fire on your tongue
and can be as demanding as a toddler’s tantrum.
At night it is the clack of a stiletto heel on the footpath.
But if you add a speck of white you’ll quench
the flames and fury. It’s rose petal soft,
hopeful as a misty morning and sweet as meringue.
For the baby at your breast, it’s the lullaby you sing.
Dab red with yellow and you get the song of cicadas
when sun lobs light at the remains of the sky.
It’s when trees succumb to autumn, abandon their leaves,
or a farmer wants rain for his thirsty crops.
A rainbow is as elusive as the treasure at its base,
When sunlight peeks under the hems of a cloud
it pings a drip of rain and an orchestra plays
the first movement of a symphony across the sky.