We are in each other’s arms today. The air feels gummy and sticky. We didn’t chose this and yet here we are. I am present and when I close my eyes, I feel the warmth. I imagine it has a colour.

The colour red is punctuated by small black dots made of darker and brighter shades. All together, it creates an organic gradient. It is unbearably hot and at times mildly warm. It never turns cold, as Warmth is afraid to become white, to freeze into ice.

Red is comfort. It is welcoming. It attracts leaves, branches and feelings. It doesn’t judge and for some time I thought it was.

I was wrong.

It wants to get to know everything that comes its way. The good, the bad, the boring, the temperamental, the downs, the joy, the doubts, the crazy. I admire Red for its curiosity, for its freedom to let a whirlpool of emotions enter its world. The branches meet the small black dots and are unafraid, attracting and nestling them within the nook of their leaves. They never new it was possible to share the same emotional identity but Red made me see the world otherwise.

“Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love.” Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

Listen while reading Illuminate by Jon Winterstein