THE BIG SPLASH

 

My pallet yawned as each dull ooze of gray

Was squeezed and smeared into another shade

Of gray, defying my cones and rods to see

The diff'rence.  One shade the more, one ray the less

Cannot erase, cajole, or trick the eye

That seeing one, mistakes so many others.

Convulsive cataracts spasm in the hardening paint,

Blind the daily canvas of my loosening mind.

 

A splatter of violet, a splash of red

Obfuscated by looming vacuous grayness.

This color wheel of hope and wonder deceives me.

Staring into black holes of men, my plundered

Eyes must turn away and salve their sight

And soul to cast away this colorblind canvas;

A matchless brush and wetted gunpowder

They give to paint a spurious fireworks display.

 

Then, turning before my weary eyes like pinwheels,

Mini spectrums, cast off refracted light,

Slashed like machete lasers into my eyes.

Each startling color rupturing retinas and cells

And forging new receptors; laying bare,

Demanding to be filled and satisfied.

The one who landed, crash into my sight,

Serene and unaware, complete innocence,

Such brilliant sparks that flew, you'd think

He knew the impact he had made, and yet,

Not so.  Such sweetness never knows its power,

And the coruscating colors of this gem

Were snatched before he crashed unwittingly into me.

 

 

B. Benjamin

Blank verse

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