Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Color Recognition 101

It is the one color Sam can not identify.
Last October, spring and now.
This is the only color that escapes his otherwise
perfect
color recognition skills.
Brown.
I look at the assessment
and blink.
Parent teacher conference
in mid swing until:

Brown?

Numbers, no problem.
Ovals, triangles, squares
covered.
Motor skills off the charts.
Hand washing-
needs some attention.

Listening to messages is on the up and up,
and we're making great choices in how we
talk to our friends.

It's just, well the brown.

After bath tonight I asked him, what color I was wearing.

Brown he says.

And what color is your beautiful and deeply moisturized skin babe?

Black he says.

I see a creamy brown on your hands, and a creamy peach
on your palms I say, making little circles on his open hand
in mine.

No mom. I am black.

Like my eyebrows? I ask.

And mine he says.

So, then Sam, what does brown look like?

Like me-and you-and Marcel-don't argue with me mom.
I know what I am talking about.

Color identification skills, are clearly in the eye of the
beholder and the being held.

Tighter.

Map out for me what has happened
at just shy of five so that a richly deep brown skinned
child when asked to identify the color brown

says

I don't know what color that is.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is the most poetic passage. Not just in the words but the poetic-ness of a larger human dialog; identifying those who we love, closest to us and how we see the love ones.

Thank you catherine for your sharing. Thank you for Sam and his unbelievable diction that is so timely and so bloody needed.

Michelle Trudo

honeysmoke said...

powerful.