The poem we worked with in class

Red

Was Johnny Barlow

with his lightning fists

that drew blood in a blur.

Yellow

was Urger,

who stood behind,

with crooked teeth,

spitting and cursing.

Blue

were Miss Spencer’s eyes,

pale and shining,

and fading distant grey

as the taxi drove away.

Green

was my dad’s handkerchief,

ironed,

pressed into the pocket

above his heart;

a box of handkerchiefs

Mum gave him on his birthday

two weeks before she died.

Brown

was dry grass all summer,

a dead snake,

cane toads squashed flat,

our house smeared in oil;

nothing that lives,

nothing that shines.

White

was Mum’s nightgown,

the chalk Miss Carter used

to write my name,

hospital sheets,

and the colour of Linda’s cross.

from the verse novel by the river by the Australian author Steven Herrick

And the great titles you came up with: