Synaesthesia

This poem won Stratford Literary Festival's Young Poets' 11-16 competition 2022. It is based on my brother's experience of having Synaesthesia.

Synaesthesia 

You say I’m 80% green

just like March, April, May

like C and E and A

and all the words they paint

like number 3 and number 8

and all the tastes they make.

I’m 80% green but 20% white -

a hilltop after brief snow

light breaking through the canopy

dead-nettles, snowdrops, cow parsley

the washed up swash of the sea.

You experience life beautifully.

Am I shades in-between -

tones which remind you of feelings, memories,

the places we've been?

You say you read in rainbows

that my name is a frosted leaf

that yours is pure yellow -

sunshine, celandines, daffodils.

You watch the garden fill with birdsong

an orange ripple of blackbird

a bright shaft of wren. You say you can

see the hum of a bee, that it tastes sweet, fizzy.

You tell me, but I cannot see.