We’ve built our little world,
With sunsets and dreams,
Through ups and downs,
We’re stronger than we seem.
So let’s paint tomorrow,
With colors, bold and bright,
Chasing every moment,
Like the stars in the night.

The brittle oak legs hold up my taut canvas
They have endured years of feelings without buckling
And here they stand, facing me, asking me
When will you stop?

The splintered paintbrush drips colour on the soil beneath me Unwavering in the palm of my hand, it stays steady, solid
Yet it groans under the pressure of my fingers
Crying out for mercy with every stroke.

The canvas calls, beckoning my delivery of mind and heart
It whispers calm claims of serenity and peaceful hours
Whilst these are compelling words
There's only one use it can give to me.

The paint dries in the southern sun, untouchable but delicate
A portrait so realistic, only her stillness betrayed her
She gazes at me with lapis coloured eyes that don't move
If only I could recall who she was.

The memory of her explodes in my mind like a carpet bomb
But it's stripped away just as soon, ripped from my fingers
A crystalline tear cascades as I pummel the bare sod with fury
But until I remember again,

The brittle oak legs shake violently under my taut canvas.
The bent paintbrush leaks paint onto the soil beneath me.
The canvas whispers, beckoning my delivery of tears and anger.
The paint drips in the moonlight, distorted and warped.

The shape of your love’s image
Makes one imagine,

The many brushstrokes –

Painting out such a masterpiece
like you, Love.

we started with just clay when we met
as time went on we would not forget

we went to shaping and molding
something we both would be holding

we took a break to let it dry
time went on, our love did not die

we put our sculpture into the heat
planning to make something more concrete

we add splashes of our memories and strokes of paint
it's coming together to be charmingly quaint

we once more go on to seal it in fire
our creation of love that we admire

Drip
Drip.
No water needed.
You cry in colour now.
Grief mixed with pigment—your palette was pain.

taste as above the mind
interlong, stretch of water sold
absinthe's disdain for salt
familiar running legs brushing cruel

Color the sky with cerulean blue.
Know in your heart it will be true.
Paint the clouds titanium white.
Use indigo to pigment the night.
Oh, painter, your palette is as sharp as your knife.
May it guide you towards vibrancy all of your life.

Picture frame of ugliness – but not what the world sees,
when your paint yourself under your insecurities.
Does that make you a coward; or are their eyes
the cowards, too afraid to see the real picture of
themselves?

societal expectations, and passive judgments –
behold their critical gaze; yet so are the eyes that can’t
stare themselves in the face. so too, blinded by their
own fears, and personal insecurities.

But as you start to peel away at the metaphoric picture
frame, retracing their hidden layers of drawn over
strokes of new paint - embracing vulnerability;

I'm between finding myself in my inner self-criticism,
and external judgments – I could be the picture of the
prettiest flowers, and hoping one day I learn to paint
myself under the brushstrokes of security, and
vulnerability!

my picture is finally complete!

I laugh at the young light
and gift colour full rein
cover the ground at speed
flex the holy spectrum
into deep infernal textures
boldly release hinted hues
hidden to the casual eye
stroke my rivals into life
created at the break of day
capture unnatural advantage
in this leg of the human race
to reach God's rest
at the creation's edge