Poetry is Dead

What would the world be without colors? Would we notice their absence? Would we miss them? The world would be grim and dull, but not knowing the magic of hues, we would all be oblivious to their nonexistence. There would be no rainbow as the sun peeks through after a storm. No more happy flags waving down The Castro. What would the endless chains of fast food restaurants do without the reds, the oranges, and the yellows that trigger our appetites and unconsciously help us consume more than we need? Maybe there wouldn't be any more MacDonald's; no more happy clown urging you to play in his playgrounds while enjoying artery-clogging may-be chicken nuggets and I-hope-its-beef burgers. Oh, and can't forget the side of yummy deep-fried-I'm-one-step-closer-to-a-heart-attack fries. Ah, the good life. Maybe a colorless life would benefit our expanding waistlines; keep our children from joining the rapidly multiplying obesity club. However, though some good may evolve from the tragedy of the “Grey World”, we lose more than we gain.

First of all, as greedy as the human race tends to be, the invitation to over-indulge offered by the hunger-inducing tints may not make a difference. Colors, after all, cannot be held responsible for every committed act of excess, whether it be overeating or avarice. We’re probably better off blaming a woman. That’s what religion, mythology and history have done – Eve, Pandora, Malinche. I mean, it works, right? The point is that even without these volcanic shades, we would still find a reason to fill our greedy guts and keep them growing.

But a world without colors would be sad. There would be no poetry, for how would poets be inspired? There would be no green rolling hills. No snow-white covered mountain tops. No turquoise Mediterranean Sea. No more red, pink, orange, gold, purple, blue skies as the sun sets. No parrots flashing through the jungle. No multi-colored school of fish swimming in the bottomless ocean. No proud peacocks. No poppy fields. No high-lighted hair. But at least we would all be equal for there would be no racism. We would all be the same lifeless shade of grey. Toni Morrison wouldn’t have written "The Bluest Eye" Slavery, at least not as a result of one’s flesh tone, never would’ve been. History wouldn’t include The Holocaust. We wouldn’t know who Anne Frank is and would have never read her diary. Again though, the weight of those horrors cannot be blamed on colors as they can, and must be, blamed on human ignorance and lack of compassion.

Colors inspire and make us feel alive. A world without them wouldn’t be a world. If, indeed, the absence of colors had the power to keep events such as the Holocaust from occurring or slavery from ever being a reality, we wouldn’t be who we are today. We wouldn’t have the taint of those events to learn and evolve from. Everything comes with a price. When Eve chose to eat the flesh of the fruit the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, she opened our eyes to a world of realities and possibilities. She gave us the opportunity to chose for ourselves and be given free will. Therefore, a world with colors allows us to taste the magic of life and exercise our free will as we chose to accept or reject the tempting taste of fast food or give into or push away the ignorance of discrimination.