nacre · concentric, slow, an oyster's grievance
not white. white is an idea; pearl is a thing. the colour of a thin
curtain through which the moon is trying. the colour of the inside of
a shell on the windowsill in kitchen. the colour dawn reaches before
it commits to a colour.
pearl is the colour of all the things in sometemple that nearly are white but
cannot stop themselves remembering some other tint — the candle, the
paper, the underside of the milk. it is white with a memory in it.
a colour that is the result of layers. the result of a long inside
grievance. it takes seven years to grow. the patience is visible.