Boxes

We all compartmentalize
To some degree if only
Unconsciously as we
Keep our peas from
Touching mashed
Potatoes on our
Plate so we try
To keep work
Separate in
A box from
Private
Life
Like an
Actor who
Puts on a mask
For each role played
Until the actor cannot
Easily take off the mask
It is just so with the boxes
Into which we try to live our
Lives and sparks fly when we
Put what goes in one box in
Another treating children
As employees or lovers
As wives or friends as
Associates finding
Life is like a color
Wheel where
Mixing can
Make
Greens
And oranges
But also browns
And once boxes mix
There is no way to again
Compartmentalize our lives.
Perhaps life is learning how to
Watercolor when we are all
Novices let loose with
Colors brushes
Paper and
Hopes
We
Can paint
Within or across
The boxes.