The colours blur together: yellows, pinks, oranges, and light blues. Moving shapes like the coloured glass of a kaleidoscope. Each colour and pattern are representatives of my jumbled emotions. The colours bleed out to shades of red—a warning of danger-bearing emotions—as the sequence continues to dance.  I’m trapped, glued to the eyepiece as the tube of my life is rotated. Barricaded, unable to participate in my own reality. The variegated reflections persist with their changing but restricted design. I see cherry, rose, merlot, scarlet, crimson, ruby, and blood . . . Hopefully the blood will washout tomorrow.

By Shari Marshall – 2023

Written in response to Carrot Ranch Literary Community 99-word challenge: write a story about the color of hope.