What Is The Use Of Colours Perhaps They Sighed Into Their Flasks Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

what is the use of colours perhaps
they sighed into their flasks;
some of them, anyway,

while the poets cried
and children at their tasks:
it is just loveliness;

you may as well ask
the use of the wind, the grass
the skies when they are blue

or other hues and I know I know
it can all be explained numerically
biologically magnetically

but oh, colours, since I knew you by name
in my own language, I have never been the same
and I have never wanted

to quantify you

mary angela douglas 30 november 2015