Coloring Outside of the Lines

By Samantha Weintraub

Unicorn

Little unicorn

With your one horn

Nobody can see you but I know you exist

Why don’t you want to prove yourself?

Are you a scary creature?

Are you not as beautiful as we have made you up to be?

We have growing expectations of you.

You’re magical.

Or so we think. Do you not want us to be disappointed?

I won’t be.

Maybe you’ll disappoint yourself

Unicorn,

You have the highest expectation of all.

“Dreams are the playground of unicorns.”

-Unknown

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

I remember the desire to blend in

if we didn’t blend in then we would sorely stick out

I don’t remember why

I remember blending in too much until I was nothing but the seeds of fruit stuck to the blade at

the bottom of the machine

rotten and sour when everyone else left

I remember the exclusivity of a whisper

the need to know the secrets it held

trying to uncover the mysteries and confusion

I remember hating you

I don’t remember why

maybe you fit in all too well

that was just another mystery that I didn’t understand

I don’t remember why

I remember that it was important that I understood it all

years later and I still don’t

I’ve managed to take myself off the sharp spinning blade

now I don’t remember why I ever clung so tightly

Puppet

Your mouth moves but the words aren’t yours

Don’t claim them as your own

You’re controlled by someone else

Unoriginal individuality isn’t individuality at all

Doesn’t it get boring?

Thoughts running like race cars outside of your head

Strings pulling at your arms

Force

You to hug what you don’t love

Thoughts running like race cars trapped inside the stadium

Black and white checkers contained

Don’t color outside the lines

“We’re so trendy we can’t even escape ourselves.”

-Kurt Cobain

Memories

The pictures of us clutter my desk

Turning into a computer

Filled with memory and empty spaces

50GB

Frames and glares

That captivate my eyes for hours

So long that they start to shed a dried out tear

Perhaps the computer should be powered down and

Forgotten

A clear history, a blank desktop

Yank the memory card from its holder

Watercolors

melt into the page like a drop of water

colors spreading throughout the canvas

cover the creases with beauty and color

spread out even more with the stroke of the brush

lighting up what once was dull

contained to 8.5 by 11 but free as a rainbow fish

floating on top in a bubble

spilling out of the black and white and glossing it over with gold