Hand of Many Colours

The girl on the sand
shifts it to where she is now.
She thinks, ‘it’s so many colours
even though it’s said to be yellow.’

She shifts the sunlight
with a subtle tilt of her head
her laughter echoing as
she’s saying, ‘this will be what I remember.

No baggage for me
I’m no outsider to this place
I’m a proud member of the human race.’

Girl in the sand
with the hands of so many colours
even though they look olive
shifting the world with a tilt of her hands
and a simple upturn of her smile.

Echoing grandmother’s drive
passing on mother’s wisdom
catching the light of father’s jokes
drawn from Pacific and Indian Oceans.

He knows laughter is a potion
to the loneliness she sometimes feels
when her gem is not seen by the people around her.

He knows she can find that shining within
she can be that shining beyond.

Fire in her belly for all she cares for
father, mother, brothers
sky, art, sand, and dolphins.

She is shifting the world
with a tilt of her head
and hands of so many colours.

By June Perkins, originally appeared in Under One Sky (2010)