White

‘Meanwhile, surely there must be something to say,’
— W S Graham, The Constructed Space

Meanwhile, surely there must be something to say
about colour, and how it is only

the shades that an object rejects
that we see. Every thing

shows us the flip side of what we suppose.
And of course I think of white

when I say this – being almost all
colours thrown back.

Like the white sheets of your last bed,
with its hospital corners.

And your face, grown paler,
fending off more and more of the light.

Guardian online, September 2007
‘Electric Shadow’ (Bloodaxe) 2011