Charcoal

Charcoal 

is our preferred method 

with which to sketch our days 

thick, dark swaths of pigment 

that smear and make their mark 

unapologetically 

abstract, flowing, influential 

or gashes across the page 

like wounds that won't close 

and neither are ugly 

though we can't erase them 

they are the foundations of your life 

but details make the picture 

the careful lines and smudges 

noticing a twinkling eye 

or smiling with all your teeth 

and everyone you meet 

is drawing their own 

conclusions and beginnings 

unfinished works 

marbled with messy, rushed greetings 

and slow, agonizing goodbyes 

strapped to our backs and worn on our sleeves are these masterpieces 

every day being dotted 

with someone else's charcoal 

our sketches are never finished 

but always beautiful 

but we forget, somehow: 

we are all art.