Poem: "Unicorns Are Yellow"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This is the freebie for the January 2018 crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from alexseanchai. It also fills the "red and green" square in my 7-1-17 card for the Winterfest in July Bingo.


"Unicorns Are Yellow"


The colors red, blue,
and green are real.

The color yellow is
a mystical experience
shared by everybody.

It is said to lie somewhere
in the invisible space between
light orange and light green.

It is something that anyone
can encounter, but only in
the right circumstances.

Not everyone agrees
that unicorns are real, but
everyone knows that, if they
do exist, they are yellow.

It is the color of that
which is mysterious,
ethereal, numinous.

Look for yellow between
the reddest of reds and
the greenest of greens.

Look for unicorns
in the space that
cannot be seen.

A glow, warmer than
firelight or sunlight,
resolves into flanks
and flirting tails and
slim spiral horns.

Unicorns are real,
and they are yellow.

* * *

Notes:

Unicorns have appeared in many forms throughout mythology, often in unusual colors.

In this setting, humans have cone cells with narrower peaks, meaning that yellow is not perceived -- only light shades of orange and green. However, mystical excitation stimulates the brain in ways that allow it to extrapolate across the gap and see yellow, not physically, but inwardly. Everyone has the potential, but not everyone necessarily has the opportunity.

Comments

[kengr]

My phone has a seperate IR ("night vision") setting. Images are B&W, but fun to mess with. Also useful for doing things in dark rooms.

It's an old Samsung Intensity II.