The Coat of Many Colours

Rich colour signifies deep inwardness.
The bending sheaves, the sun's, the moon's decline
Are colours in this coat, my father's gift.
Some bleed and blend. Others, like potentates,
Stand out - see! - urgent and peremptory.

All his tall stories, dreams he calls them, stress
His own pre-eminence, its outward sign
That coat he swaggers in … What but that gift
Has he to show? … How his pretension grates,
The smugness posing as authority!