My Tube Of White Paint

• Katharina Brieden, Grade 10
• Poetry
• 2018

I have this tube of white paint.
I think it’s neither a shade nor a colour.
It has its own uniqueness that can’t be put in a category.
It’s white, just white.
In a way, white paint reminds me of human life.
We start out pure but as we mix with other colours we change.
You mix white around and it’s almost unrecognisable.
When a mistake is made on a canvas white seals it up,
unless of course the mistake was made with a dark colour,
then white can only partially cover it.
From a distance, you can’t tell there was a mistake,
but if you look closer you can make it out.
White works with others to create something beautiful or tragic.
You always need balance.
Summer and winter, day and night, black and white.
Not just any white though, my tube of white paint