TRANSPARENT
Over the years
Our bright acrylic traits
Slide, dissolve
Pale into watercolour
Undefined edges
Fine lines
Soft colours
That fail
To arrest
Walked past
In crowded rooms
Looked through
At parties
And in church
Should I
Shave my scalp?
Daub it in woad?
Carry a rose
Between my teeth?
Tear my shirt
To show a rebel heart
Still shouts
Beneath the brittle skin?
Or is there an upside
To this gradual becoming
Transparent?
As the grain of the paper
Blue-veined
That carries us
Starts to show through
Freed
From the need
To airbrush perfection
Layer the gloss
On the uneven
Rough weave of
Fibre and splinters
A life lived holds
As our fading
Draws a bridge
To an open space
Beyond immediacy