Outside

Black Sheet

Thought is often hidden in the shade of words.

On pages white as daylight,
On pages black as night,
We write the words that make us —
And time tears them from sight.

Our eyes keep turning upward,
Then downward to the ground,
And every page we fill with
Empty reasons written down.

On black I write in white ink:
“Justice” — clear and bright,
But still I cross out all
The page’s contraDICTION in sight.

Now on a page of white
I write “money” there in black,
But nothing follows after —
And its whiteness won’t come back.

I take another page —
Once more, it’s black as night.
I write the word “Love” on it
In vivid crimson light.

I’ll fill this page as best I can,
This darkness I’ll revise:
I’ll write the word “sky” upon it
In the brightest shade of blue, and…

I’ll write: the grass,
The mountains, sea and sun,
A rainbow and our happiness —
In every color I have found.

Let this black page be filled
With COLORED words I’ve chosen,
And then within my memory
In color it will stay unbroken.

Let others see no colors,
No shades within my words.
I do not write for everyone,
Nor wait for their verdicts.

Black and white are boring,
Too familiar, too well known.
I’ll keep on writing everything in color —
Color is the ground I’ve grown on.

By meaning and by color,
I’ll link my words in chains,
So I don’t lose the bond of Love
With emptiness again.

And if, as time goes passing,
These colors start to fade,
I won’t go back to ink again —
I’ll take the shades of light instead.

I’ll learn the art of silence
Between the words and lines,
Where pauses matter more to me
Than meanings made too plain.

Let someone search for essence,
For formulas and lines;
I’ll leave my colored words behind
Upon these pages of mine.

I will not erase the past —
Not black, not white, not any part.
I’ll simply add the COLOR
That’s ours, complete, and from the heart.

And if the page should reach its end,
And there are no words left to say,
The motion of our HANDS will stay
Across the surface where they played.

And there, where nothing has a name,
No rules, no terms, no obligations,
There’s one thing I will never bear:
A love without its coloration.