Each picture is heartbreakingly banal, <br />a kitten and a ball of yarn, <br />a dog and bone. <br />The paper is cheap, easily torn. <br />A coloring book's authority is derived <br />from its heavy black lines <br />as unalterable as the ten commandments <br />within which minor decisions are possible: <br />the dog black and white, <br />the kitten gray. <br />Under the picture we find a few words, <br />a title, perhaps a narrative, <br />a psalm or sermon. <br />But nowhere do we come upon <br />a blank page where we might justify <br />the careless way we scribbled <br />when we were tired and sad <br />and could bear no more.<br /><br />Connie Wanek<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/coloring-book/
