Now it is Night
My hands sore with happiness
Flags snapping to a declaration
Of brass and woodwinds

While the sun has yet to set for me
(As I hope it will stay for many years)
The night sky is beautiful.

I stand starstruck
Looking up at the sky
The ink from my markers
Flooding my sketchbook
The plants around me
Inspiring my drawn thoughts.

It is in the Night
And I am anything:
Reckless,
Artistic,
Adventurous,
Colorful.
What are you?

Then it was Evening
And I was in my mother's room
With a list of things I need to say

After getting small things sorted
I told her something
That had been on my mind for three months

Not that I expected her to lash out or hate me
But even in the most gentle environment
Anxiety preys on the mind.

A year and a half later, my confession was confirmed
I now had evidence to show the world
Not that I consider them evidence
But a gift
And a chance

It was in the evening,
When I became part of something truly
Colorful.

It was in the mid-afternoon
My lunch on moving boxes
The sun so unbearably hot

I traveled from the East to the West
Then out of the country
And back

I saw a culture
My culture hates
And realized that
We hate for no reason
That only those who threaten are the threat

It was in the mid-afternoon
When I wanted to be
Adventurous,

It was in the afternoon
I remember
Fingerprints, watercolors,
Crayons, markers, pencils
Acrylics, polymer, paper, pen

All of it meddled in masterpieces fit only for the finest refrigerator

Beautiful portraits
Illustrated stories talking about how my day was
Or exactly what it looked like when I actually did go to the Amazon Rainforest
(people still don’t believe five-year-old me)

I remember the coloring pages of my favorite tv characters
My amazing babysitter
Showing me how to “shade” each masterpiece.

It was in the Afternoon
When I decided to become
Artistic,

It was in noon,
I hit my head on a doctors kit
Irony shouldn't require stitches

I later slipped
And cut my tongue
Eating food never seemed harder

It was close to noon when I slipped
Stupid Crocs
I avoided impediment by millimeters
My rainbow sharpie-d cast made up for it.

It was in noon
When I had the energy to be
reckless,

It was the Morning
I loudly announced my arrival
My mother and father overjoyed

I had a mere scratch on my head,
But wounds heal,
And I grew

In the seaside of Portsmouth, Virginia
Walking, speaking, laughing, crying,
Bursting

It was in the morning,
When I had a chance to be
Anything: