Which used to be perceived as the colour of strength. A respectable hue for baby boys in the 1930s, rosy cheeks being a sign of good nutrition. The girl in the park has hair the shade of over-chewed bubble-gum. Pastel pink draining from her bleached hair. The girl in the park sits beneath the awning every day, hot pink Crocs on her feet, despite the rain. You’ll see her, if you want to, smoking a rollie, scrolling her iPhone, plugged into flamingo pink headphones with the pink cat ears attached. You want to ask her how one commits to a colour both strong and soft in its vulnerability. You want to ask her why the shade of the inner lip, or the chroma of a mouth in waiting. Why commit to the fragile colour that lines the corners of our eyes. You want to drag her to your camellia tree, where the blossoms shed as crumpled pastel tissue, as quickly as they blossom. Why commit to something destined to wilt as quickly as it blooms? Such softstrong faith. Such softstrong faith in this non-committal world. You wear pink, green and black earrings because this is the way of accoutrements. Because you cannot Call It What It Is and this is what you do, weaving Tatreez scarves as the collective sew watermelons onto their Yamakahs.  Alone, you return to the camellia tree, sodden on the slate pavers, bleeding softstrong into the moss. You stand by the pastel cabbage rose, clumsily opening to the raindrops. You want to open too, open softstrong beyond your own curated scream.

Myfanwy Williams (she/her) is a Sydney based queer poet and writer of Filipino Welsh heritage. Her writing explores themes of identity, ecology and intersectional justice. Her poetry and writing have been published by the South Coast Writers Centre, Plumwood Mountain Journal, About Place Journal, Wild Roof Journal, Panorama Journal of Travel and Place, Alocasia, AAWP Meniscus Literary Journal, Clarion Poetry, The Winged Moon Literary Journal, The Madrigal Literary Journal, The Crank, Crow & Crosskeys, Querencia Press and others. She was nominated for the 2024 and 2026 Pushcart Prizes and holds degrees in literature and psychology.