"Where I'm From" by Melanie Poonai

"Where I'm From" by Melanie Poonai 

I am from a life filled with colour,

From the chocolate brown that is my skin.

I am from the sunshine yellow of my mother’s laugh,

From the red and white of my brother’s favourite football shirt.

I am from the crisp new white pages of a book,

From the miserable grey of the street I live on.

I am from green, pink and yellow; My garden in summer filled 

with flowers,

From the terrifying black of the nightmares that haunt me.

I am from the ginger orange of my buried cat,

From the blue and gold of my ever-short school tie.

I am from the dark oak of my grandmother’s coffin,

From the golden “Aum” pendant around my neck.

I am from every pink scar etched into my body,

From the red, orange and brown of a hot curry.

I am from every identical colour of the twins I love,

From the blue and green of a hospital ward.

I am from all that has happened,

And all that will be.
¹

• 1Melanie Poonai, ‘Where I’m From’ (2007), The Poetry Society. Melanie Poonai’s poem Where I’m From was a winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year award in 2007, and first published by The Poetry Society. Reproduced with permission.