Blue, Green, Red and Purple: Half-Caste
Betty Collins’s profound poem says that “remember’’ is a better word than “sorry’’ for someone born of love and hate.
I bear in me the blood of conqueror and conquered:
in me is the thick mixed blood of conquerors tumbling over the vanquished;
in me
is the blood of tribes
trampled into wet red dust and
children
born of love and hate
and pain
rich colours of hate and agony and passion
and fruitful greens fed with secret blood and bone.
Towers rise out of ashes: out of burnt quicklime
rises solid rock
“Remember” is a better word than “Sorry”
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