Day 10 of Paul Brookes’ April poetry challenge. You can see the images that inspired this poem and read all the other responses here.

Colours

They bubble up from the past,
psychedelic childhoods in tangerine and sky blue,
lava lamps and floral prints.

They fade out on old biscuit tins,
cardboard chocolate boxes full of postcards,
illustrations from the days of steam.

We remember through a vintage film,
artistically soft-focused, sound a little tinny,
autumnal at the edges,

and the vibrancy of today flutters out of reach,
caught sometimes in the tail of the eye,
finches and their pied plumage.