I think sometimes the sky should be a chalkboard that I can scribble on

That way everyone can see my thoughts

And maybe be entertained

They would see ornate designs and oriental shades

Instead of cloudy skies and rain

I’d paint deep shades of azure, vermillion, amber, harlequin and Lilly Pulitzer pink,

I’d wave my hand like a wand and brush over the atmospheric canvas

So I could make the whole world my art gallery

And walk proudly like a sculptor being admired by the crowd at his own exposition

I’d like to position the stars so constellations don’t require me to stretch my imagination in order to see them

I’d complete the greatest connect the dots book ever made so the night is always a window into my mind

And maybe change their colors

So each speck in the black canvas would be own vibrant bead

And weave the sky into a wild native hair braid

 

I want to the sky to look like absolute happiness

So whenever someone is lost they can look up

And see glee embedded into the clouds

So I can draw them an arrow and point

And tell them go this way to be found

 

I want the ground to glow like my favorite color, atomic tangerine,

A bright florescent orange unable to be caught by photograph or computer screen

But most of all because even its name is ready to detonate like dynamite

I want crayons exploding in the sky

A Crayola scarf I could cover everyone with and keep them warm in the frigid weather

I wish I had a paint brush doused in the color of happiness

That I could take everywhere

And decorate melancholic faces with acrylic joy

I want to have the vibrancy of a peacock and voice of a bluejay

Maybe the speed of an eagle so I can soar all over the world

And shoot roy g biv from my tail

Like an airplane skywriting the quote “Peace begins with a smile”

On every hemisphere

And be there when tears

Fall like rain and catch them with a safety net so they never hit my atomic tangerine surface

 

I want to be an emerald elephant with an ephemeral fashion taste

Or maybe a aquamarine anteater who attacks by licking them up and plopping them back in their homes

A cobalt coyote who calls out at the moon

To say “thank you for letting me see, even when it is dark”

I suppose I’d be an iguana

Because one color is never enough

But instead of camouflage

I’d use my shifting scales to bring bright neon flair

To anywhere where it is dry and drooge

 

And most of all I want everyone else to join

To create the most expansive mural known to man

Together we can

Subsume bad thoughts in negativity

In Technicolor emotions and peaceful graffiti

Forge psychedelic kaleidoscopes

That way every dreary image can be broken up

And put back together

So there’s always hope

That each scene will get better

 

Turn our tongues into sharpie pens

Doodling on the stratosphere

To remind troubled stargazers

That heaven is always near

Leave our masterpieces there forever

Like a dry erase board vandalized

In permanent marker

No more darker pigments

Bringing figments of suffering to the surface

Because your life is a coloring book

You can take reality

And fill in the lines

That way even the bad days look

Like a vivid web of beauty

 

I know with these hands I can change the world

By finger-painting

And making watercolor tapestries and hanging them from the ceiling

I can wash away the grey blanket of despair and hurt

With something even more vibrant than a rainbow

I want to see midnight blue mountains, maroon sunsets, spring green springs, ruby trees, sapphire shrubs and lilac animals

You’ll have to wear a facemask to guard your nostrils from the toxic smell of paint

Because every inch of earth will be a notebook of childhood sketches

Each page with their own message

 

I want my time on this Earth to be my magnum opus

Glossed in chromatic shades of peace, love, joy, and hope this

Black and white landscape will be turned over and colorized

Because sometimes I want nothing more

Than to leave my mark on the sky

Colored atomic tangerine