Solstice Color - Sally Churgel

[Larry Robinson]

Solstice Color
 
The other day I looked into my airtight sealed jar of sugar in which
Little tiny, crystalline, black specks moved in the glacial field of white
The tiniest ants I’d ever seen.
 
If we saw a photo negative of our heart
Would we see tiny black specks moving about
In the vast divine field of white light?
Black holes where our grief and disappointments and yearnings are
Sucked into a black abyss of silence?
If we could look deep into those black silences would we see
Tiny crystalline specs of white light?
Like the solstice where in the deep, dark winter night
We light candles and wait for the return of light
 
My neighbors have two black sheep and
Two white sheep with black hoods of fur,
A black bull with white horns and a black cat with a white left leg and paws
And a black and white sheep dog
They roam and eat in a brilliant green field where
Red autumn leaves fall in the blue sky after gray mornings
 
Their black and white coats amid the grand scheme of color
Makes me wonder if the way through our darkest nights
Is not through the dark, or the light, but
Though the noisy, chaotic cacophony of color that is our life
The red sorrows, the yellow bliss, green yearning, turquoise love
 
In the duel nature of our lives, the myriad black and white choices
That we face daily are not separated by gray nuances
But filled and connected by brilliant luminescent color
 
Like baking white sugar and flour and black chocolate chips
Into a sweet delicacy that gives us colorful delight
 
 
	- Sally Churgel