How Long Were We Black

You and I, how long were we black
Now emerging, we slowly rise, as a plant after landslide
There is colour, long have we kept out, but now it returns
We return; we are the colour
We are music, strawberries, lace, cinemas, literature
We are here; we are of the human race
We are walks in the park, dappled foliage on wooden bench, stray tennis ball on the grass
We are the sun
We are a pair of rosellas fluttering away into the east
We hum the tune on our fingers, surf the chords of Rachmaninov, determined as any
We are where the sky and the ocean meet without a joint, the low haze like fabric in diaphanous folds
We are also mud on the skirt lifted above the knees, sound of the river, current between our toes
We are lowered eyes, corners of mouth curling up, meaningful pauses, we are cheekiness
We are bookends, standing side by side with no distance between them
We are novels lying flat on the shelf
We tap upon a blank page with a cheap pen and scribble and dream, we waste time
We are poetry, we are prose, we exist on napkins, spill across scrap-paper
We are what a sunset is: capricious, indifferent, perceptible, imperceptible
We are tenderness, frost, fire, laughter, empathy
We are cafes and galleries and dramas and alleyways
We are hand cream, flowers in a watering can, long chats with mum, bowl of noodle soup
We had lunged about, headlong, in darkness, you and I, back and forth, corner to corner, but now
We are home
We have dug our roots deep inside the ground from where we are free with which there is joy.