confederate flag

when I was little(er) than this

I used my crayons to represent the earth.

The light blue crayon would always be for the sky.

The yellow one I would use when I meant the sun.

I used the brown one to mean the ground; my

parents and my sister.

When uncle had his heart attack

I too questioned my perception, but used the gray one

still neat and pointed in it's paper casing.

It was just that simple.

Reviews

[King O'5ive]

As a kid I saw things in black and white; what is and what isn't. life was easier that way. I used grey and black for things I didn't understand, like death n terminal illnesses...

Thanks for sharing this honest piece of art... I wish I could view things the way a kid does!

WRITE ON!

[Tomás Ó C..]

I love the poem, iot takes a turn of the imagination to get the connection with the flag. We have our own issues with the Butchers Apron in Ireland...

[h d e rushin]

thank you so much Tomas for stopping by to visit me.....dana

[Terpsichore]

Kids will always draw what they know about the world. To them, it's a place where trees and people can be the same size, where grass looks lovely even when it's coloured purple, where sun rays reach out to embrace, and rainbows magically form without a drop of rain.

Interpretation rather than intention I suppose, and what a lovely uncomplicated world they inhabit.

As you say, 'it was just that simple.' T

[h d e rushin]

thank you for those kind words Terpsichore.......dana

[kmartell]

I used to eat the waxy crayons ...liked the purple best I recall...

Very good the way you move down the page. very "complete" and the well done words in the early stanzas earn you the right to your comments at the end. "in its paper casing"

[h d e rushin]

thanks kmartell for the keen insight. I think I use to eat the waxy green ones.

[Olivia]

I love this. Shows how children can see better than adults the reality of what is really going on.

[h d e rushin]

thanks Olivia.....I just got my internet connection restored after the storms in the Midwest. But children know a simpler symbolism, one not tainted by the narrowness of politics and failed principles. Great review my friend.....dana

[...]

A simple heart poem, that isn't simple at all, in fact, speaks volumes of the intentions of people.

[Beccy]

Children see things so clearly. There is no compromise, the sky is always coloured blue, the sun bright yellow, the ground they inhabit brown, (and beautifully grass green no matter whether it be city or countryside); it's all the grown-up shades of grey that aren't so simple.

Beccy.

[h d e rushin]

Oh, Beccy, to have the mind of a child again when the world was simple colors not shaded
or influenced by grown-up morality or dogma . Ask a little child to draw a circle in the dirt and they will
undoubtedly start by first getting close to the ground. They know that the ease of drawing one
first starts with a firm foundation; an unbiased foundation. I love your words my friend.....dana

[wordman]

we have a lot of racist idiot`s in america,and it`s a shame that they want to incorporate the confederate flag with the`re hate .i don`t see the flag as hate,but i don`t own one either.

[h d e rushin]

thank you wordman for that insight my friend. And ain't it funny how hate can so easily be
incorporated? But love takes some arm-twisting? dana

[wordman]

who knows dana,i`m just trying to be free

[W.k.kortas]

Colors are, at some point, in our lives, crayon-simple, until such time we impart meaings and agendas to them (though it is not lost on me that brown represents those things most meaningful, most elemental here.) This is a subject that lends itself easily (as opposed to well) to diatribe, to writing that beats you about the head and shoulders in lieu of making you think. This grabs our attention by coming in the side door.

[h d e rushin]

thank you wk.. the older I get the more childlike I become. I have to get me one of those
confederate flags before they become collectors items....lol, dana

[jacob erin-cilberto]

it isn't simple now though is it?

the whole confederate flag, what it stands for, and yet for some, for something different----
but anything that represents hate...should be discarded for sure.
I don't know that the flag itself is so much the problem as the references to it, and for some what it stands for---money itself isn't evil, it is what we do to get it...and to keep it.

and as you say in your poem, you used different colored crayons to represent different things...the crayons themselves had nothing to do with it....they weren't evil...or good.

[h d e rushin]

great insight dear brother. Crayons are neither evil or good. I just don't quite understand how
read moregreat insight dear brother. Crayons are neither evil or good. I just don't quite understand how
the symbols of an old flag can cause such uproar. You're not just a writer of poetry Jacob, but
your heart is as Socratic as it is pure......thank you my friend...dana