She wants to write around the world someday,
Sketching forgotten brothers in dark ink:
Rendering those voices who cannot say.
He prefers her in physician’s array,
Wearing privileged white; drawing the mundane.
She wants to write around the world someday.
She often shades the dark borders in grey,
Filling deep pencil marks; mixing colors,
Rendering those voices who cannot say.
He likes the clean and sterile lines that lay
Flaccid on the bleached parchment; the paled scene:
She wants to write around the world someday.
She detests oh righteous chemistry – pray
She never turns to painting dots and not
Rendering those voices who cannot say.
Their shoulders touch; he admits that she may
Stretch the canvas wide enough for her dream –
She wants to write around the world someday,
Rendering those voices who cannot say.
‘She’ in this poem is also very young, but the poem speaks the truth of this youth — the patronizing ‘He’ and the yearning but tormented ‘She’ who wants to break beyond the borders preferred by this ‘He’ and paint where there are voices she knows are there but whom she has not yet completely learned to hear…