Painting Colors of Life

Blue is the sky, bridged beneath a bouquet of white puffy flower-like clouds passing slowly by

Violet blue tulips swaying in the fragrant cool breeze of spring along with the tiny lilies of the valley

Green is the newly cut grass just before watching a neighborhood baseball game on a warm summer evening

Purple and goldenrod are the irises where grandpa planted them next to the white picket fence

Red is the half torn down barn and shed with a broken gate, behind their acre country house

Orange tiger striped is the tom cat "Bob", guarding a spot next to the roadside ditch, waiting to pounce on a mouse

White and brown, is my pa's best hunting dog, ole "King" bringing home rabbit to feast upon

Silver, my pa's favorite fishing pole, he carried over his shoulder down to hollow creek, with a can of night crawlers for bait

Black is the moist earth as our red Farmall tractor tilled it for planting seedlings of corn and beans

Slate blue, are the wooden shutters of the windows where we looked out with pride as the corn crops peaked

Grey, dusty, is the old rocky dirt road where my aunt and pa had a game of rock throwing after school

Pink, are my grandma's hands as she cut out the sugar cookies, soon to fill the porcelain clown head cookie jar

Lavendar with pastel designs is the apron she wore while making her famous pot of homemade spicy chili

Yellow is the color of the pudding she made for her best lemon meringue pies for family visits

Faded blue/grey are my grandpa's Levi Strauss bib-overalls he wore to work in the local factory

Red are the delicious apples in rows of the mile long orchards they grew and bore, ready for picking

Green/blue was the neighbor's pond where my pa and his brothers went fishing to see who would have the biggest catch

Tan are their weathered faces, and callused hands, as they raised chickens and canned vegetables and fruit in summer's heat

Bold colors are thoughts of the struggles of a hardworking family with seven children to clothe and feed

Iridescent pearl, like million's of shiny oyster beads is the heaven above that will keep them safe

Inspired by my thoughts and feelings of those very special memories, while I continue painting colors of life