Ghost (January)

Technology has not produced many colour words. When Rolls-Royce makes a Silver Ghost we see it instantly in mind’s eye, but it’s a synonym, just as Silver Ghost is a gumtree. Cadillac, Fluorescent, Halogen. Microsoft conjures no colour, only a line of three notes when turned on. Google’s primaries invite us to the kindergarten playground of Internet, but at end of the day it’s just a black screen in a dead box. Concrete January daydreams of techno-colour persist. Poets may use Qantas by inference, but how many readers see red? Colour itself is an add-on, the ghost of the machine. 

Techno-colour daydream: Asphalt Berocca Cadillac Desktop Elastoplast Fluorescent Google Halogen Inkjet Jet-trail Kodak Lemonchiffon Marlboro Neon OMGWTFBBQ Petroleum Qantas Roundabout Strepsil Telephone Ultraviolet Vacuum Wikipedia X-Ray YouTube Zipper