You are your colours by David Dumouriez

You are your colours:

you are that bold red of your team.

From year to year, they shifted tones,

perhaps,

and your shades changed too. But you

are red.

You are the green you rolled on when you

were near enough to breathe the grass. 

Strange that you can close your eyes 

and smell it now. Just not so strong?

You are the panoramic blues you loved

as soon as you could see them: 

the light one, domed above;

the dark one, daring to sweep in,

always rushing back before it’s trapped.

You are the grey, the brown, the black

stripes of your cat. The soft cream

of his chin. The gold behind his ears.

The planet cast that cat a million times,

yet made him only once!

You are the brilliance of those feathers

that you had when you were eight (how they 

surpassed the wigwam that they came with!).

You looked and looked and never saw more 

depth than in the beauty of those dyes.

I know, these are my colours! But you have yours.

If you lost them, take them back. 

Hold them. Mix them. 

Make them the powder of your life.

You are your colours,

and your colours are you.

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David Dumouriez once won a poetry competition by accident and the memory of it still haunts him. His hobbies include cricket, horology, and finding new ways to avoid talking about himself.