Technicolour by Tamiko Dooley

I knew it was you
By the way the violet caught my eye
The last refracted hue of a multi-coloured arc
Earth promising a world in colour would one day come
I was driving home in the rain
From another grey day
As cloudy and confusing as they had all been
Since I heard
The folk song we would sing in the car
Started playing on the radio
I could see your curls blasting in the wind
Knees bobbing to the beat
Hands tapping the fabric of your mum’s Honda
I cranked up the volume when it came on
Wound down the windows
Wipers cleaned away the last of the sky's teardrops
I indicated right and turned the corner into my street
That’s when it happened
A burst of impossible broken white
The colours we’d learned together:
Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain
Charging across the road in front of me
Blinding me as you used to do
Powerful, gleaming, victorious
I knew, then, that you were still being you
Still in technicolour somewhere
Lighting up the sky with your flame.
Tamiko is a half-Japanese mother of two. When there's no pandemic, she's hired as a wedding pianist from time to time.