SOFT LEAD PENCIL
Soft lead pencil
Gently guided by hand
Crafts the lines of its echo
Smudging as it draws
Leaving gossamer timelines
Shimmering on the paper
Graphite grey and gleaming
Flesh drawn, flesh drawing
Pencil tip to wrist rises to knuckles
Knuckles to fingers
Fingertip to pencil
Endless crafting
Looping of life
The thumb of the left
Stubbier than the other
As if a sleight of hand
Has erased the tip
An accident of birth
Lead crafts life
And life crafts lead
One leads
One follows
Tracing each other
Endlessly
With love to Escher, a constant inspiration in my life
Carolyn Black 