The Landscape Artist

He rubs his brush in the colors, blending them into dark pigments and then layering them onto his canvas. The white colored background covered by his warm fall tones. He smiles, showing the gaps in his teeth, and rubs his wispy hair off his forehead- leaving a smear of blushy red.
"Tommy!" She shrieked as she hurried into the bathroom. Her toddler had gotten into her basket of make-up, smearing her tan foundations and eye shadows into a dark mess on the front of her clean bathroom cabinets. She sighed and scooped him up to clean off his face, maybe one day he'll be a landscape artist.

Human Nature

We sit in the damp grass that was pressed down with mud encrusted shoes. My legs stretch into the tall greenery, thin scratches across my shins from thorn bushes. He rests his head against my shoulder as he stretches horizontal to me, feet resting on the top of the four-wheeler tire. My hair tangles in the peeling bark of the apple tree, its droopy branches reaching into the picture of the rolling hills of Upstate. The trees are pillowy green, pastel skies, and cotton ball clouds. A cool breeze lifts my sticky hair off my temples and cools my sunburned cheeks, before dancing up to the leaves in a percussion of sound.

"Purple as the stain blackberries leave"

Purple as the stain blackberries leave
the setting sun inks the clouds deep hues
that play shadows on her pale face
as she titles her head back to tattoo
her mind the color of
her heart

This is a letter to ...my hair (in class prompt)

Dear Hair,

This is a give and take relationship. I trim your ends every month, and you lay nice and flat on date-night, comprende? I mean, really, you aren't going to be the understudy for Rapunzel's golden locks, so do me the favor of not being sucked out the window when we drive in the car. It doesn't make the movie-star shot when your suffocating me. And another thing, what is your problem with the straightener? So he burns you once and you think avoiding him helps? Riiiight. Oh, and whats with being so clingy? Really, girl, you may want to be all over my best friend, but no one likes you creeping on them. Just a fashion tip, as we're getting through things, choose a style. Its either poodle curly or pin straight, no one likes this in between you call 'original'. Oh, and by the way, blonde highlights are so last year.

<3 The girl that deals with you

Stress-induced silence (free write)

And the silence made my heart think twice before making a sound. Please don't call on me! No...no! Look somewhere else! Of course no one would answer the math question, no one liked math! I knew for a fact that my answer was wrong, and with my luck, I would be called on. Pretend to be working on the next problem, make a hardworking face (this is was theater is for), and push buttons on the calculator. A quick glance up and the teacher's yellow-green eyes are skimming the heads of students avoiding eye contact. All I could think about was how I was going to get called on. I hopelessly thought that if I had worn bland colors I could've blended into the wall like quicksand. Our teacher crosses the room, feet ticking like a ballerina. In the silent space of that moment, when I happened to meet her piercing cat-like eyes, I knew I was her victim. "Do you have an answer, Miss. Martinelli?" She asked, as the traitors who were letting me drown sat back up and looked around the room, waiting. I felt my heart pump with stress and adrenaline as the silence stretched taunt. The eyes of my classmates burned into my reddening face as I miscalculated a new answer in my head. "Would it be 4?" I asked in my best Jeopardy voice. "Correct!" My teacher mimicked. I sighed, suddenly exhausted, math was one of those classes that stress me beyond repair.

Fernando

His eyes were midnight almonds, his skin a yellow tan. His sharp teeth bit into his lip, as if holding in a laugh. A widows peak drips down into a broad forehead. A slicked back expanse of hair bleeds into the background like the sun into the horizon.

Sense

Throw vivid imagination,
Hear shimmering music,
See raw beauty.
Make impressions,
Paint purple glass,
Smear ink silhouettes-
Sense every masterpiece