Burst through red-tinted windows
Into the fiery orange morning sky
Take in the light mist
Take in the springy gait of the early morning risers
Spread your arms wide
Embrace the day as it settles down on you
Embrace it for its newness
Embrace it for its uncertainties
Embrace it for the hope it brings
And the beauty that you could fill it with
A coloring book of unfettered beauty,
Today is a world of possibilities
Fill it as you will, fill it as you must
With colors you deem suited
But remember – there is always a but –
That once the colors sink in
Once the seconds pass, once the minutes pass
They morph into memories
Have-beens that you cannot change
Dreams are reflections of the future
While memories are impressions of the past.
Fill up the colors with wisdom, with intelligence
Let there be hope, let there be pride
In the way you wield your colors
In the way they flow into your memories
In the way you look at what’s to come.
Remember the fiery orange sun that’s rising
Remember its transformation into the prickly yellow of the noon
And its relapse into fire.
You could mirror it in ways the galaxies cannot fathom
You could wrap your arms around yourself
And turn into the phoenix you know you are,
Choosing your colors as you breathe,
Every breath giving you more reasons to live,
More reasons to love the book you’re coloring in.
In the end, when another opens your book,
And is bombarded with the colors you were bold enough to use,
They’d be wondrous, they’d be jealous, they’d be admiring
That you had enough courage, enough strength
To appreciate today, to praise today, and live in today.