WHITE

White is the color of the samurai;

a death shroud pre-wrapped.

White is the color of a bride

not yet aware of the parasite.

White paints the whiskers of an old cat

whose youth was jet black.

White is raised by armies stripped of their fight.

White is the gloved inspection: antiseptic of life.

White is chalked around bodies wherever they lie.

And when white creeps onto our heads in the dead of night,

white is the veil we drape over childish delights,

and call it wisdom.

For white is as white has always been: everything and nothing.

 

© J. Manuel