Challenging Poetry

Federated States of Micronesia: Maskun

we fly to the south Pacific
in search of color—
coral and schools of red fish
beneath an iridescent blue,
hundreds of greens
giving depth to the beach—
so much color.
so much life.
so many friendly children
darting to and fro,
singing a working song
with blind eyes.
they laugh and play
and shout to their friends
with no blues or browns
or reds or yellows,
just black
and white
and grey

Author's Note ▶︎

The thing that struck me about Micronesia (obviously) was the fact that there's a small island in the chain called Pingelap where 5% of the population has a severe form of color blind-ness called Achromatopsia. Which goes back to a time in their past when the population dropped to only 20 individuals, one of whom was a carrier. It just struck me because when I think of the islands, I think of color, and here's a large segment of population that just is limited to a colorless world. Maskun is the word for those individuals with this form of colorblindness.

I don't think they necessarily feel the loss, but it made me think.