By Chloe Boyd ’23
I sweep the light up into my arms, ready to show you flying colors, ready to throw them into thin sheets above my head like a dance of silk
I make my body flow, coaxing my creativity to convert into shades of crystal Caribbean blue and shining ruby red, golden honey yellow and young spring-leaf green
The colors rise up out of my soul, dancing and floating in front of me
My gray mind overgrows with life, small sprouts of purpose of what I was born to do invading the corridors of dull facts and unrealistic expectations
Tiny sprigs turn into weighted jungle vines as they creep their way into every crevice of my mind, allowing me to forget the life I had been living and finally focus on my color
My mastery of my art overcomes my soul, replacing the girl that was dead inside, anti-social and depressed
I would no longer blend in
Life grew over my soul, a dead place creaking back to life
My color floats up my arms, infusing into a lined and dotted pattern of otherworldliness into my skin, making it glow with something you’ve never seen before
Your eyes shine with reflections of my imagery, and my master of color paralyzes you with awe as you stare, fixated on my floating masterpiece of a display
Something jostles under your skin, something like your soul recognizing another’s as mine comes to life
You feel something come alive in the back of your head, something you never thought you’d see
Color fills your eye as you watch me come alive
My color fused and running through my body, mind, and soul, you finally realize what I’m made of and what school did to keep my colors bound beneath my skin
Only something as soul-sucking and repetitive as school could make a mind as colorful as mine become so gray and lifeless
It never quite struck you that you were holding us back rather than helping us grow..