Your Favourite Colour (The Colour Red)

Dear Archie,
Though I never asked if I could call you that,
And didn't know how old you were when we met.

Someday I'm going to tell you
That I hated looking in the mirror
So I put a picture of you there instead.
Echoes of your whispers calmed me
When ghosts glided over my bed.
That your memory soothed my soul
When my heart was battered by my head.
I'll ask again what your favourite colour is,
Though I already know that it was red.

When monopoly gloves grabbed with greed
And I saw silhouettes slinking by the door,
Tell you that the day never came
When I didn't cry for you anymore.
I'll ask you where you were born
How could I not know that?

Childish and immature
So many questions I should have posed,
What his name was, when he went to war,
And when he gave you that rose.
You look forward to hugging him with two arms again,
Is as far as my story-knowledge goes.
We sat under a fake coconut tree,
Yet I didn't know you hated coconuts.
Then again you met my mother,
But didn't know that we're all nuts.

Though you couldn't speak anymore
It felt like the words were there.
Wise wisps ready to be planted
As they hovered through the air.
From that very last day,
When you sat in the sun by the birds,
When I said 'I love you',
Did you know those would be the last words?

Were they really your favourite flowers and colour?
These things I really want to know.
I want to put flowers on your grave,
But don't even know where to go.
So daring darling and beautiful girl,
We'll have some catching up to do.
Questions posed in beautiful shapes,
Of things we never knew.

You've missed some things through the years,
But you know that it is okay.
I'll pocket these memories and names and love,
And save them for our next rainy day.
There were days we were silent and lost our voice,
But still we could guess words unsaid,
Somehow it still was so perfect until next time,
When I'll ask if your favorite colour is red.