Painting By Numbers

Oh dear
it seems to me that you’ve been
all these years just
painting by numbers:
filling in all the right colours and
making sure no spaces were left;
never going over the lines.

And from a distance
it all looked OK.
Get closer though
and there was no sparkle,
no lightness, brightness of touch,
no spirit.

So why not for once in your life
ignore what the numbers in the boxes
tell you to do?
Draw a moustache on the lady’s face,
paint the sky pink if you like.
Let the sun shine in, and
make your bit of the world
a little crazy.
Dare to be just happy.

And even though
they won’t like it,
just do it,
just do it, for what do
“they”
know anyway?

. . . when all “they” are is
numbers.