White Is Not My Colour

curating colour requires

knighthood, rescuing a coloured image

restoring it to a coloured name

 

in the woods there is more than colour

the texture of bark, bitter acrylics

the labour beneath

the layers

 

if an idea is painted, a history, a desire

a colour is not just a colour

 

orange is not colour

merely

it is instinct, fang, rupture

awakening

 

a devouring (of roots)

of tigerhood

flesh open skin peeled back

slow and half at ease

 

the bones remain

uttering a different story

the pain is a ghost language

 

*

once upon a time

I came I saw I assimilated

 

trapped in the woods

I use white words, leaving a trail

of crumbs in circular argument

 

I write I grieve I love

in

more than

colour                         

 

but wielding a sword in white space

is easier

than cutting down

bark

these words by Lily Chang were inspired by the colour of Tran Nguyen