Early Reasoning 101: Pink And Green Hills Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

the hills were pink and green
we painted them that way
with slight variations
in chalk pastels
each child's picture
different in some way
then we were happy
the teacher loved them all
we didnt' know
even then
there was control
controlling them, controlling us
later, on the bus
the older students
from the junior high next door
taking their flutaphones home
to practice
band homework.
they looked serious
as if they had a job to do
but no one was paying them to do it.
that's what it's like to be old
we said, or, a little older.
but I still want to paint pink and green hills.
will they let me?
no one answers
no one knows the answer
no one knows
it is even possible to ask.
it's about control
who's controlling the sun
that it should be pink
always in the same corner of the page
if it is, you get an A.
but the sky isn't made that way
it never happens
there is no corner of the sky
as there is on the page
no one says anything
we just keep drawing it the same way
with slight variations
into the mean that is not golden
that is not golden at all
because there is always
a control.
in the great experiments.

mary angela douglas 16 may 2023