Brown...that’s the color.

The red dimmed and damped.

The black shone and burnished.

The unseen and unheard.

The unwanted, the suppressed.

Understated and undervalued

It looks a shade dark,

At times, a shade light.

Not a blinding flash.

But a somber kind.

Humble and lingering.

It’s in the dust and the motes

The specks and the grime,

Easily trodden on.

The hue of torment

The shade of suffering.

That which remains.

That which stays.

The color of the sturdy bark.

The color of the brittle dirt.

The beautiful, the beastly and the brazen.

That’s brown.

I like to wear it on myself.

My skin.

My essence.

A brown soul.

A brown heart.

A brown mind.

A brown study.

It doesn’t glitter rudely

It doesn’t blind you

It stays, it lingers,

It segues into you

and becomes you.

Brown and beautiful...

Brown, the shade of the earth,

The shade of life.