What is my color?

I am grey.

Non color.

Nearly a shadow.

Not really here;

nor am I there…

existing somewhere betwixt life and death.

Blending in with everything shade;

Becoming silhouette…

Or at least I used to be.

Now I am red.

Power. Love. Alarm. Warning.

The ancestors can see me from the Spirit World.

No longer a stain in the background,

but rather, a smear across a wondrous sky.

My spirit beats red,

The Changer can see me when I pray…

I exhale the red and melt the iced-over, colonized world

that has sewn trauma and tragedy into my heritage.

I am the fire, the sun we once worship,

burning down the ugly,

setting alight my tribal language

so that when I am no longer a shadow,

my ancestors will see me coming home.