A Riot of Colours

***


It‘s not only bad weather
that causes violent storms 
sometimes it’s the colour
of people’s uniforms.
 
Black, white and brown
are said to be neutral
but their symbolism
is quite often brutal.
 
Many will remember
the fascists’ black shirt,
symbol of a tyranny
that we wish to avert.
 
Or Nazi stormtroopers,
whose garment was brown,
bent on domination
and bloody crackdown.
 
Similarly dangerous
was the ku-klux-klan
with its white robes
and hateful plans.
 
Garibaldi took part
in Uruguay’s war
and red was the colour
of the shirt he wore.
 
If there is a colour
that’s utterly barmy
it’s the sanguine hue:
think of the Red Army

or else the Redcoats
the British fighters
who fought the rebels
and routed the blighters.

The solution has to be
not to be tolerant
of coloured apparels
that are belligerent.
 
 
© Luigi Pagano 2021

 

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Dodgem

This caused me to think of three uniforms I have worn in those colours: Black – St Johns Ambulance youth brigade (made me want to beat up boy scouts, then bandage them). White – as an Anagarika (Buddhist postulant). Brown (Buddhist monk, forest tradition).

Dodgem

So true Luigi. And do you remember The Brownshorts, Roderick Spode’s fascists parodied by P G Woodehouse?