city of djinns

I alternate between pale skinned and burnished gold

In the summer I step over the sun’s threshold and melt into this copper-coloured skin

If I believed in reincarnation there would be a hundred different souls stuffed like silk inside me

If you slit me open I would spill these colourful contradicting identities like an oil slick

This difference dying the street all my shapeshifting tints

My blood would leave a stain shimmering the colour of fire opal, a chemical curiosity

Turn me over in your hand, watch me catch the light a thousand different ways, each facet of me blinding

I’m iridescent, brilliant

I’m like Argus with a thousand eyes

I’m like Shiva with a thousand forms

I’m like a djinn with a thousand stories

I'm overflowing

Abundant

Bounteous

I carry in me Vermillion, Indigo and Saffron

My bones are made of precious stones

This difference

My difference

Is worth its weight in Gold