"Crayon Magic" by Heather Eby

Crayons are magic.
Crayons can do anything.
Crayons come in lots of colours.
Crayons come in small boxes or big boxes.
Big boxes have more colours.
Really big boxes have even more, plus a sharpener.
Old crayons still work. Even after eighty years.
You can collect them and be crayon rich – if you share.

You can take crayons anywhere and nobody needs to know that you have them.
Crayons don’t leak.
Crayons don’t make noise.
Crayons don’t need batteries.
Crayons don’t have to be wound up.
Crayons never die; they just end up in pieces. But all the pieces still work.

You can write with crayons.
You can draw a picture.
You can go places you have never been.
You can do whatever you want, because you are powerful with a crayon.

You can write about a picture you made.
Or you can make a picture about a story you wrote.

You can tell your favourite colour, because it’s the shortest crayon in the box.
Or maybe it’s the longest one because you never use it because it’s your favourite.

Crayons have their own smell.
Unless you have a box with scratch and sniff crayons.
Then it gets all mixed up with weird smells like bubble gum.

Stick people look good in crayon.
So do stick animals.
You can draw a barn.
You can draw a field.

You can draw farmer Bryan in the field.
Bryan was born in ’37. 1537.
That means he’s really old.

You can draw your own line picture and colour it in with your crayons.
You can draw a horse.
Or you can draw a house.
Or you can draw a castle.
You can make own your own rainbow and stick it on your wall.

You can get a colouring book you like and colour in it.
You don’t have to use the colours the book tells you to.
And you don’t have to stay between the lines, because there’s no teacher with a switch.
You can go really far outside the lines.

You can have someone else draw a picture for you
And colour it in.
And then you can write about it.

You can share your crayons with others.
If your box is big enough, no one will get stuck with the white crayon.
White crayons are stupid – unless you have a black piece of paper, and it’s dark, and your flashlight is fading.

Hand a crayon to someone and they might make a mask and turn into someone else.
If they turn into Michelangelo or Rembrandt, they might make you a really nice picture with your crayons.

There are only three rules with crayons – and nobody knows what they are.
You can make the horse blue, and the grass orange, and the sky purple and the sun pink.
Or make them all green and say they are from Mars – or Oz.

You can take your crayons to an important meeting, like maybe a cabinet meeting, pull one out and make a smiley face.
Pink is nice. Or blue. Or maybe red.
Then pass your box of crayons around the room and start a trend.
Or get ushered out – with your crayons.

But before you leave, stick the smiley face to the door as a gift.
You can always make another because you still have your crayons.

You can imagine miraculous things with crayons.
Like, what would happen if we replaced all the guns in the world with different coloured crayons?
Would everyone learn to share?

You are a magician if you have a crayon.
Your crayon is your magic wand.
You can change your world with a crayon – at least for a while.

Heather Eby lives on the small family farm with a bevy of birds and animals. She had the pleasure of taking Brian Henry’s “Welcome to Creative Writing” class and is currently enrolled in his "Exploring Creative Writing."


For information about Brian's creative writing courses and writing workshops, see here.