The Colour of Desperation

by Dawn Hunt

 

 

Colours

Define the very world we live in

They accentuate our whole environment.

 

They depend on light

And light depends on the sun

Or electricity.

 

So, if envy is green

Evil is black

Pink is camp

And white is rage

What the hell!

Is desperation?

 

It was our little hippy haven.

Our crusty domain.

 

Skinny dogs at the end of ropes

Scrounging

Begging

With beggar owners.

Mangy happy sniffing

Someones only trust.

 

There I stood.

The fruit and veg man and his stall

Next to me

He

Wasn’t bothered.

Resigned to a life of mediocrity.

 

The odd “good morning, alright?”

 

Someone selling scarves

Someone selling street news

Someone selling-

Ethnic clothes made in India

Price um up for the stupid tourists.

 

So if red is hot and blue is cold…

 

Shining sweet rappers in the park

Dull eyes

Strung out

Up all night

Hopeless.

 

Love

Was scarce here

Death was an angel.

 

The gray or white uniform buildings blend into the sky.

 

They would leave early

Against a crystal blue morning sky.

Sometimes in the steel gray of rain

 

Needed smack

Needed

Just that one line…

 

So if red is hot and blue is cold…

 

Old lady

With sagging skin

White and wrinkled

Too many carry bags for her thin arms.

 

Cars

Close together

Shouting

Blasting music

Tooting horns.

 

Impersonal London drifts by.

 

The dirt beneath our feet

Emptiness in our hearts

The dim lights of the tube station

Show little colour.

 

So if red is hot and blue is cold…

Purple is royalty

Brown is dope

Gray

Is the steel sky-

Beneath which they sit

Waiting

Asking with their eyes

Sometimes calling out

“Spare change please!”

 

Dirty clothes

Fluorescent green beer bottles.

 

Where was the party?

I didn’t go

Wasn’t asked

Didn’t fit

 

So if red is hot

And blue is cold

Yellow sunny summer

 

Cream-

Is thick

Come

 

The party is every night.

In the squat

 

A fiver for some cheap cider and nibbles.

 

Money

Doesn’t last here.

 

Voices

Skin colour of bodies with little clothes on.

 

Peachy smiles

Pale frowns

Darkened cynical

 

They all floated by in hazy bubbles.

Animated

Carnival town.

 

The river below was dark with green moss and scum.

Browning autumn leaves

Low

Golden sun.

 

The black shadows creeping in

Winter’s coming night.

 

So if red is hot

And blue is cold

What colour were we

What colour are they now?

 

 

My desperation now has no form.

Isn’t physical

Taste of wool in my mouth.

 

Dim lights

Quiet town.

 

Colours

Are less

I still wear them.

In defiance

In hope

In truth

In spirit

In light

 

 

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