Juniper Lilies 

Liv Palubeckis

Mandarin orange. Such a pretty combination of words. Lilac too. And cerulean. They’re all such beautiful colors as well. They make my mind beat to the rhythm of life, the vast drums and booming sounds of the echoes through the empty chambers called lungs, my entire body. Words can make anybody’s heart quake with love, fear, power, any emotion possible. Any word. For me, it’s color. My mind floats around for the perfect shade to put a picture to the word and my heart throbs once the pitch and shade match in a perfect melodious harmony.

Shamrock. The taste of green coats my mouth. Carmine. The red rage and heartbreak on my lungs. Vermillion. A red pepper tears up my eyes as I cook a meal for my family. Viridian. A soft salt soaked breeze coats my lips from the last summer my family was all together. The beauty soaks my tongue as the words release themselves from my throat, from my lungs, from the mind where the shades come into the light of my eyes, clouding my vision in this one perfect hue of light called color. Arctic blue. Staring into the soft white snow as it falls from the gray sky. Lemonade. A joyful feeling fills my eyes. Shortbread. The memory of me yelling at my brother as we make gingerbread houses. Biscotti. The crunch of a sugar cookie resonating through my body. Pineapple. Juicy acidic yellow coating my taste buds. Canary. An optimistic light floods my line of sight. Tuscan sun. A warm ombre of color as I watch Star Wars with my dad. Colors swarm me with no avail, blocking my vision in short bursts of different spectrums of light.

Pumpkin. Carving a bat with my brother. Salamander orange. Digging through my grandparents’ backyard looking for worms. Carrot. My mom getting upset that me and my brother don’t think her cooking is the best in the whole wide world. Seafoam. The soft blue waves of the sea as they churn onto the seashell-filled sand. Chartreuse. Apple picking with my cousin before we run into my old teacher. They all lunge towards my eyes, no stopping them, no use even trying to stop them. The colors are all around me in this world I live in, the tall cityscapes describing themselves in shades of silver, lead, pebble, flint, porpoise. Streets show themselves as graphite, iron, charcoal, the lines separating different lanes lemon yellow, macaron cream lines on the sides.

Emerald. The days when I played Minecraft with my brother and cousin. Amethyst. The one day I decided to write in a journal then quit because I was too tired. Wisteria. Drawing the softness of the trees around my grandparents’ house for a painting. Pomegranate. The taste of sweet fruit filling my mouth. Parakeet. The days I spent researching the care of different birds because I was so sure I could convince my mom to let me get a cockatiel. Juniper. The nights I stayed up way past my bedtime in my room reading. The natural shades of this unnatural world soothe my tongue after I hear the words in my mind, after they release themselves on the tones of my voice. They calm my mind from the colorful words that find themselves hovering around inside of my head, stealing away the life of any other thought that dares to enter my mind.

The colors are fading away as I walk to my apartment. My vision returns to normal, no longer surrounded by the different names of the world around me, no longer reliving the memories I am so fond of. I walk through the door to see the comforting beige walls with taupe and ivory details, the soft mocha couch and tangerine wooden floors. I sigh as I close my eyes after I enter my safe haven bedroom and fall asleep, entering the marvelous dream world of color and my imagination that I love so much.