Oh, shit, there's a title option....

Probably my favorite little thingy I've ever written. Do enjoy!

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For What It’s Worth…

I’ve always been told that a picture is worth a thousand words

But is it possible to paint a picture with a thousand words?

For what it’s worth, I will describe

A scene of ordinary splendor

Taken and manipulated by the mind

To awe-inspiring heights.

Because, with one first glance, all that I can see

Are the green sticky leaves on bushes, covered in baking sap

The green grass, burning under the summer sun

The ants that crawl among the rocks and our feet

Angrily waving their antennas at the giants who disturb their peace

The bugs that buzz around, their stingers locked and loaded

For they fear us as much as fear them

And they wish we would just go away.

The walls of the school and their pale sickly brick coverings

That prevents the mind from finding peace.

For within these halls, all that I shall find

Is a constant worry of events that will come

About a paper that I don’t understand and haven’t started

About the parts of the body and their Latin names which escape me

The necessity of numbers and letters to be put together universally

And the old, giant books that bore me.

But back outside, as I squint through the sun’s luscious glare

I retreat to one place I will always find peace, no matter how war torn it may be.

So I take a breath and let my eyes glaze over

And see the place no one can see.

I see the clouds, fluffy and white

They’re like bombs in the sky, pictorially frozen eternally as they explode.

But at the same time, I see the shore.

The waves that crash against the clouds, slowly pushing them along

Blue is never always mellow

For it sparks emotion in us all.

The green bench and table  in front of me

With its sticky, peeling paint

Has X’s and O’s scratched into its wood, grouped off by slightly parallel lines.

That, to me, is beautiful

Full of endless possibility.

Was it two friends who were bored by a teacher’s lecture?

And strove to fulfill their ADD needs?

Was it a mastermind of strategy?

Honing the skills that made him famous?

Was it a boy and a girl who carved out the game as an excuse?

To sit close to each other and maybe even talk?

And then maybe they went somewhere else,

Away from this garden

Like the movies

Or a carnival

Along a starry shore-lined pier.

Or maybe it didn’t work

And with hot, angry tears

They bid each other farewell.

Or maybe they stayed this one

For many years to come

And they raced along the shore, laughing and dancing

For they will never be this young again.

I tear my eyes from the table, to give the couple their privacy

And I tell myself I shouldn’t be so nosy

And a voice in my head reasons I’m not

Because, after all, it’s all in my head.

Yet another voice whisperes

“Who’s to say it all didn’t happen?”

I turn my attention to a small stone man in the back.

He stands, facing me, peering at me over the bushes

His expression is like a wise, joyous man

As if I’m in the process of solving a puzzle he already knows the answer to.

What is the mystery?

Am I standing above a buried treasure?

Is there a secret tunnel beneath me leading to another world?

Or maybe the puzzle is him

The short stone man in the bushes

Who peers and spies on all of us

Including the couple who played tic-tac-toe here, so long ago.

Is he a small midget or a dwarf?

Or even a gnome?

Does his pointy beard hide a pointy chin?

Does his hood hide his pointed gnome ears and his misshapen head?

And how did he come to be a stone?

Is he a replica of a person?

Is it his actual size?

Or is there really a person under there?

Trapped by Medusa’s evil stare

And so he sits

Frozen in stone

Silently waiting and plotting his revenge against Medusa

Has anyone told him Jason got there first?

I turn my attention away from the stoned man, to give him some privacy

(even though he shows us none)

And I now look to the sky.

The great vast horizon

That perfectly describes infinity

Or a giant’s joke as he painted the ceiling blue.

And now he laughs at us as we stare in wonder

At a simple, blue plastered ceiling.

(or maybe it’s a she giant who painted the ceiling blue)

I’ve often wondered what would happen

If we ever reached the world’s end

Where Atlas forever holds the sky from touching the earth.

When (and if) we ever get there

Could we simply step from the earth to the sky?

And then walk along the sky like birds of the heavens.

Staring down at the earth in wonder

At how small everything really is.

Or maybe we could fly there

Simply refuse gravity and let go

Our arms stretched towards the heavens.

There’s a physics theory that states if we ignore something long enough

It ceases to exist.

If we ignored a person long enough

They would turn invisible.

So does that mean if we ignore gravity

And pretend it doesn’t exist;

If we say goodnight to gravity

(for you have always held us down)

Would our feet leave the earth?

And never ever come down

And then we would be hailed as masters of the universe

Just for slaying the mighty gravity.

For what it’s worth, I have given you something

Instead of staring at black words printed on paper.

I have never been a painter

But an artist of a different form.

I have given you food for your imagination

Food you can not find elsewhere

For I have painted you a picture

With exactly, and very worth, a thousand words.

Just go ahead and count.