Imagination Toppings

Imagination is the expanse of freedom within a trapped soul,
It’s a vast space of everything, and nothing,
A paradox,
A lost hope,
A found love,
What can be thought, or felt, or seen, can be imagined,

Without this aspect of the human mind, and not the brain,
We could not live,
Survival would continue to make us strive,
But such a life, would be without living,
Love and harmony would be stripped of their definitions,
Replaced with hate, competition,
What kind of existence would that be?

I ask,
I plead,
And yet the world seems to be forgetting the contribution of imagination,
Ideas,
Compromises,
Partnerships,
The flavor of the world is vanilla,
But there are so many things one can add to vanilla,
Where are our strawberries?
Our chocolate syrup?
Our rainbow sprinkles?

They are being drowned out,
Drowned like the lives of so many artists,
Artists who paint,
Artists who write,
Artists who compute,
Artists who account,
One cannot measure an artist through a paintbrush,
It takes away the imagination of what an artist is,

The world of vanilla has so many toppings to offer and yet scoop after scoop keeps raining down upon the imagination of all artists,

Help me my blueberries,
My whipped cream,
We want people to want to grab a spoon and devour what the world has to offer,

Help me,
To help the world,
And all the toppings of imagination.

by Alice Crown, 16, Seoul American High School, South Korea