Color

You were born naked,

Except for a covering

Borrowed from your mother,

And red was your color.

 

The world caught you up,

Diluted you, washed you

To the pale-pink hue

Of a rock on a river’s edge.

 

Growing, evolving, floundering

Like so many before,

You discovered earth, to roll in it

So brown became you.

 

This new covering fell,

Billowed away in dust clouds

As you found the free sky,

Lived in it and stole its blue.

 

On you went, and upward

Climbing for a better view,

Until you could fly no higher

The day you turned grey.