Brown is Me and I am all the Colours
Brown is me and I am all the colours,
They’re all inside me.
In the things I do
And the things I see.
I am red when I fall off my bike, red
All thick with the earth on the path.
Red stings hot and it’s rusty and dusty.
It will hurt when I get in the bath.
I am orange when spices are stirring
The hungry place in my tummy;
oozing into squash and sweetening
Potato and curry for tea is yummy!
I am yellow when the sun is shining
In the park with the slide and the swings
And we run, laugh and argue all day,
Me and my mates, yellow things!
Sometimes I am squashed-grass-green,
Getting up from the place where I hide,
Grass-juice stickying my legs,
Running home with the day held inside.
I am blue sea-splashing, cold,
and thick and salty. I am where
the buzzing blue of the water
meets the singing blue of the air.
I am indigo awake in the night
Creeping up to the window to spy
how many silver-white stars I can count
in the unending dark of the sky.
I am violet when everyone’s shouting
Until I am shouting too
And the air dazzles with shouting
Cutting and thrusting through.
So brown is me because I am all the colours,
They’re the things I do
And the things I see.
What colours are you?
They’re all inside me.
In the things I do
And the things I see.
I am red when I fall off my bike, red
All thick with the earth on the path.
Red stings hot and it’s rusty and dusty.
It will hurt when I get in the bath.
I am orange when spices are stirring
The hungry place in my tummy;
oozing into squash and sweetening
Potato and curry for tea is yummy!
I am yellow when the sun is shining
In the park with the slide and the swings
And we run, laugh and argue all day,
Me and my mates, yellow things!
Sometimes I am squashed-grass-green,
Getting up from the place where I hide,
Grass-juice stickying my legs,
Running home with the day held inside.
I am blue sea-splashing, cold,
and thick and salty. I am where
the buzzing blue of the water
meets the singing blue of the air.
I am indigo awake in the night
Creeping up to the window to spy
how many silver-white stars I can count
in the unending dark of the sky.
I am violet when everyone’s shouting
Until I am shouting too
And the air dazzles with shouting
Cutting and thrusting through.
So brown is me because I am all the colours,
They’re the things I do
And the things I see.
What colours are you?
This poem is copyright (©) Hilary Elder 2023

About the Writer
Hilary Elder
You can find Hilary's work in the winter Caterpillar and also the first edition of Tyger Tyger online magazine, which also has teacher resources for Hilary's mirrored poem, found on the website and also on TES.