Black and White and Red All Over

Colour Blind by Phil Burns

AnElephantCant help being colour blind
It isn’t as bad as being flatulent or dead
But he is just back from Italy
Where quite unconditionally
His breakfast croissant is served with Orange Juice that is RED

Perhaps for some of you good folks this is not a major problem
But it causes your second favourite heffelump considerable consternation
Where colour is concerned
His whole world is turned
His view of life is open to mystery and misinterpretation

He only recognises perhaps two or three colours
And then only if they are quite bright and very shiny
This is the basis
Of the problem he faces
One of his staple stakes in the ground is moved quite unkindly

What makes it even worse is that it happens in the morning
Before his brain – ha ha – is really getting under way
All he knows for sure
Is that he is feeling bluer
He is confused in technicolour for the rest of the day

He tries to explain to both his readers the enormity
Of this discombobulation and what it can mean
Imagine if your eye
Looked up at the sky
And one day discovered it had magically turned green

Perhaps he can just live his life in chiaroscuro
That is as simple as a monochrome Elephant can go
Even he gets it right
If it is all shade and light
But it takes all the fun and the joy out of a rainbow

A Rainbow, by AnElephant’s friend Emma