Yellow

by Sarah Allen

Van Gogh used to eat
yellow paint to feel happier inside
because i guess he thought yellow was a
happy color
but it isn’t
yellow is the color of
the stripes on your antipsychotics
of hospital scrubs
and the withering plant you keep on your windowsill
just because you’re convinced
that maybe you’ll be fit to take care of it
someday
Yellow is the color of severe dehydration
and fainting in classrooms
and Christmas lights woven into curtain rods
that you always keep on because you’re afraid
of the dark
The color makes you think about how there shouldn’t
have to be a
trigger warning on yellow crayons
because that’s just ridiculous.