Poem
Adil Jussawalla
Colour Problems in the Family
Colour Problems in the Family
Colour Problems in the Family
Mother forgot her features when the rest,Pinker with Persia, found her future black.
So father turned up, obligingly darker,
His iron skin scorched in its shirt of rust.
Yellow frogs, grandmother called us,
Sallow herself, brass with a touch of ash.
Then you, rose, haven for browns and blacks,
Said that colours that ran in my family
Had no place in your sun.
True.
They were colours I shed on your shoulder,
Bled on your shirt as you spoke.
They were true, and continue to run.
© 2002, Adil Jussawalla
From: Poetry Wales, Summer 2002, Volume 38, No. 1
Publisher: Poetry Wales,
From: Poetry Wales, Summer 2002, Volume 38, No. 1
Publisher: Poetry Wales,
Poems
Poems of Adil Jussawalla
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Colour Problems in the Family
Mother forgot her features when the rest,Pinker with Persia, found her future black.
So father turned up, obligingly darker,
His iron skin scorched in its shirt of rust.
Yellow frogs, grandmother called us,
Sallow herself, brass with a touch of ash.
Then you, rose, haven for browns and blacks,
Said that colours that ran in my family
Had no place in your sun.
True.
They were colours I shed on your shoulder,
Bled on your shirt as you spoke.
They were true, and continue to run.
From: Poetry Wales, Summer 2002, Volume 38, No. 1
Colour Problems in the Family
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