Shades of Orange

I am a child of the orange light

I am a child of the tangerine sun

I am the orange moon that fell in love with me

I am the orange earth that brought my mother to life

I am the orange that grasped my father’s heart away from motherland

and turned his voice into an echo of itself,

repeating until his words were empty.

I am the orange that stained my father’s hands and rusted his tools

And, when I was born, darkened his heart.

I am the orange that once lit up my mother’s smile,

like the sun sinking in the sea.

Yet -

I am the orange that turned my mother’s eyes into saucers,

and drained her face of color and joy.

I am the orange that turned her hair into flame,

burning her scalp and singeing her soul.

I am the orange that turned my brother into a thundercloud,

that made him rumble and roar over every small thing,

that made his eyes flash and flicker like lightning bolts across the sky.

I am the orange that turned my sister into a hurricane,

that whipped up her hair and blew open her mouth.

that turned her eyes into lanterns that lit up the house with their fire.

I am the orange that darkened my grandmother’s world,

that made her wither and die before her time,

that dried out her mouth and made it crack with thirst.

I am the orange that turned her words into seeds,

that fell from her mouth like raindrops on a dry field.

I am the invisible shades of orange

that swirl through dark and light.