All the Colors of the Earth

All the Colors of the Earth

By Sheila Hamanaka

Children come in all the colors of the earth –

The roaring browns of bears and soaring eagles,

The whispering golds of late summer grasses,

And crackling russets of fallen leaves,

The tinkling pinks of tiny seashells by the rumbling sea.

Children come with hair like bouncy lambs,

Or hair that flows like water,

Or hair that curls like sleeping cats in snoozy cat colors.

Children come in all the colors of love,

In endless shades of you and me.

For love comes in cinnamon, walnut, and wheat,

Love is amber and ivory and ginger and sweet

Like caramel, and chocolate, and the honey of bees.

Dark as leopard spots, light as sand,

Children buzz with laughter that kisses our land,

With sunlight like butterflies happy and free,

Children come in all the colors of the earth and sky and sea.