Canvases of Tomorrow
by Odin Roark

Life's mind colors…

Just as childish number-paintings stored in attic webs
become dust covered pleasures of memories past,
when Ferris wheels rotated dreams,
calliope horses pole-galloped gently,
and cotton candy played catch-me-if-you-can.

So too…

Imagination continues to paint a future,
laying down colors most apparent,
reds of sunset passions,
blues of love’s ebb and tide,
yellows of confusion’s cornfield mazes,
and green making hard falls plush as summer lawn.

Youthful years…

Forge rebellion,
primary hues once of steadfast clarity,
become akin to liquid crayons,
color’s containment bleeding happily,
chancing risks of pleasure and disappointment,
allowing mustards to fill in rejection,
purples bestow bruises on once flawless cover,
and gray to become reality's diffusing tone.

Adulthood…

Although beginning in simple brush strokes,
evolves into palette knife strata,
layering thickness of time over
once numbered boundaries
and burying forever the rules
of once framed borders.

Aging…

Having given time its due,
purity of vision reveals
life’s work as an ever-changing horizon,
a journey continuing inside a perpetual hourglass,
becoming a sand dune’s sunrise-of-wonder,
a masterpiece of wisdom's wind swept journey
left behind as a treasure trove.

Beyond aging…

Is where one’s gallery of experience
remains vibrant in life’s continuum,
where new shades, tints, textures, and tools
foster borderless imagination
stretching beyond today’s limits,
endowing a future with the perpetuation of possibility,
canvases of tomorrow forever reaching to touch
the boundless wonder of creation.