Anti-Valentine

A blank piece of paper.
Daunting, intimidating.
So perfect, so pristine,
but incomplete in the artist's
eyes.

The inviting starkness of white.
The itch for the smoothness of paper.
But the need to preserve the unblemished clean.

Pencils scratch against paper,
straining to glide,
but still they scratch.
The luscious anticipation is gone.

Erasers screech across the
blemish.
Claim the paper to be white once more.
But traces of lead remain,
faint, but there.

What can the artist do?
Nothing but crumple up the
once-clean paper
and try again.
But, no matter how beautiful
other sketches may seem,
the artist can not forget
the undrawn masterpiece.

The artist can fetch the crumples paper,
smooth it out,
try again,

But remnants of the first draft
are still there
and now
the once-white paper
is wrinkled, maybe ripped.

And no amount of
erasing or smoothing
can fix that.

So that's my anti-valentine. Sorry it's up so late! Next time I'll try to get it on faster.

xoxo
Emily