This poem describes how my husband and I see things so differently. ‘Black and white’ is a metaphor for the preference he has for things to be, clear cut and logical, not coloured by emotion.

Black and white in a world of colour

When I look into your eyes

I don’t see my own reflection

Only starry-eyed affection

Absolute

The black and white view

That is yours

Is not mine

I have tried to keep it simple

As you prefer

And to only see in black and white

But I’ve seen the colour

I can’t help but see the colour

I need to see in colour

To see the beauty

I’ve tried to paint some colour on your black and white world

But you tell me it’s too much

Is it so bright that it is blinding?

I get the impression that you’d rather not see it

And you retreat to a simpler world-

A world of black and white

I’ve tried to do it your way

I’ve tried to keep it simple

But I cannot deny what I see, what I feel

I cannot resign myself to live in a world without colour

And I know you wouldn’t want me to

So why do I banish myself from my own world of colour?

It’s just sometimes I doubt that it exists

And my world looses its colour too