Canvas

2024 Barrett Winner

5th Place Kalimah Gardner

It appears I’ve met a stranger
who peers deeply into me as if we crossed paths before.
Star-crossed lovers promised to meet again.
His bronzed bristles gently sway across my cheeks.
Strokes of mahogany fill in the cracks
as I slowly become his.
A shade I had never seen before.
Color, I had never loved before.
He signs his signature across my frame
as if I were his and I kindly submit.
Strangely enticed by his gentle eyes and skillful hands.
Gravity pulls me to him
as we begin to melt.
Slapping pigment on a canvas.
We spread as our color runs deeper.
Watch, as it runs for miles.
Growing stronger with each stride.
Even within darkness, we seem to make fire spark.
I beam with the colors that dance within him.
Spirits, rather.
That make a home to a once hollow body.
Whose canvas bared blank.
Spotless. No pigment in sight.
No eyes to make visions come true.
No hands running ravid across my frame
brushing strokes of genius.
Empty.
I sat against a wall.
Shivering in its coldness. Waiting for someone to color me beautiful. Not dabbled in rouge, blushed with pink, and polished with a white brush. You saw me and painted me bronze till I melted with the night. Out, I stepped. Transcending beyond my empty bed. You made me real. Colorful. You threw away the brush. Full. Not a speckle left to splatter. Only us. A work of art standing in a room full of empty canvases.