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