The Happiest Color

 

 

 

The Happiest Color 

Aubrey Duplissie 

 

It was the jacket 

That defended the boy 

From cascading rain, while 

Mother observed from foggy windows 

 

It coated the bus 

He rode for the first time 

While his parents watched, 

Hand in hand 

 

It was there on sweltering summer days, 

Within his lemonade stand, 

And staining his mother’s hands 

From hours of squeezing 

 

Then it was the fish 

In the aquarium, 

But he focused on a girl, 

And it was her hair too 

 

It was the diamond danger sign 

His car skidded past, 

The wheels screeching 

As they fought to stay on course 

 

It was the color left, 

Scratched onto the guardrail 

When it split in two 

And his car went tumbling down 

 

When his mother learned 

She was sitting in a room 

Of that color 

And it filled her vision 

 

It tortured her with memories 

Of a boy she once had 

As her stomach turned 

And terrible words filled her ears 

 

But then- 

It was the dappled leaves, 

Falling from the heavens 

Exactly one year later 

 

It was his favorite color 

That now graced the earth 

And suddenly, 

She didn’t know how to feel