Imagine Red
How do you imagine red? Do you imagine it as I do?
Mudita Mishra
What if sweet cherries were yellow,
And the colour of our lips, violet?
What if the sunset sky was green,
And no one knew ‘scarlet’?
What if there was no red,
In the Vineyard of Van Gogh,
What if it were Little Blue Riding Hood,
For whom the bad wolf lay low?
What if the colour of rebellion,
Was white, and mauve, and beige?
What if the blood of the martyrs,
Never ran red with rage?
What if the primary colours,
Were devoid of the crimson shade?
What if we never knew how Orange,
And Purple and Brown were made?
To imagine something truly,
Imagine first that it’s not;
When you feel its absence acutely,
You know what was it you sought.
The red we seek is in poetry,
It is in art and prose,
The red is what’s within us,
As is the ruby of rose.
