Tiger Eyes

Colors flowed and thoughts sprang like tigers,
in the world of a little girl.
Not enough color to suit her needs,
so she added more,
and more.

"Tone it down", she was told,
"be more like cousin so-so".
But the lilac walls and raspberry lips,
gave her joy from expression.

Brilliant color was replaced with beige.
Forced upon by milk-toast hypocrites,
pretending to have her back.

In secret she dreams of red walls.

Your thoughts are worthless, she's told.
For we all know everything is black and white.
And the music that flowed from her heart,
stopped playing to a dead audience.

Colored visions funnel into a dream abyss.
She panics.....she grieves....for they're dying.
Bleeding into an ignorant and busy life.

But tigers with eyes like kaliedoscopes,
wait in hiding nearby.
They wait for her to see them again.

Realizing her true self is dying too,
She becomes her own woman again,
and they venture into her sight.
Now she sees them everywhere,
flicking their brush-like tails of color.

They pounce, they paint,
and she is joyfully reborn.
Now she rises with kaliedescope tiger eyes.

by Kimarie Manhart-Freeman