Colors

bright striped leggings and rubber boots

outside but inside

something much darker

something she has seen

heard felt smelled whispered noticed

being exuded

in the form of crayon-created

black purple blue

stick figures in the middle of

blank white paper,

like she colored the

blank white paper;

someone colored her

black purple blue

the man that was colored on her

no longer

blank white paper;

he carried her home

over his shoulder

she dropped

a wadded up ball of paper

a few weeks later

an teenage girl stoops to retrieve

a wadded up ball of paper-

unraveled, she chokes

black purple blue

a child’s drawings

the stick figure in the middle of the paper,

crumpled tattered bleeding wet

holding a gun to a stick girl in

bright striped leggings and rubber boots