Colours of Home

Apple green and new barn red

Painted my childhood in crisscross apple sauce flecks

As snowy blossoms dotted the neighbourhood

Picnics with checked tablecloths

Like candy cane's red and white afterthoughts

May wore lilac like berry-stained snowflakes

And a million yellow butterflies

For curious little girl's eyes

To see like sliced lemon cake

In high mid-flight

Summer's end

With its shades of rose hip tea

Toothsome wild raspberries

Choke cherries like an old friend

Giving way to iris petal's serendipity

And vanilla ice cream days

Autumn shades like Mum's spice rack

Paprika red, basil green

Turmeric ochre and pepper black

Falling gold and amber leaves

Rough brown fur of chocolate moose

And deer's fawn caramel skin and hooves

And then comes winter wonderland's

Stark white minimalism

Painting periwinkle hinterlands

In icy Post-Impressionism

Thus were my colors of home

Québec's pine green and snow white

And Cavendish's reddest roan

In peaceful P.E.I.

A comforting long-lost palette

Shades of joy and habit

Once upon a time