Freshman Composition

My colleagues speak of their students -

how it is, they say, that freshmen

can't write because freshmen

don't know enough about any one thing

to write about it well....

but my third-grader comes home from

school

with her box of 96 crayons and speaks

a world of words I've never imagined:

fuchsia & thistle pink

burnt sienna & magic mint

unmellow yellow & rainforest green

Tumbleweed, sisal & atomic tangerine,

radical red & razzle-dazzle rose,

outrageous orange & electric lime,

purple pizzazz & laser lemon jazz.

World enough for me -

but my daughter?

she's interested in mastery

she wants to go back

to the crayon store,

wants a bucket, not a box,

wants more and more and more.