by Carmen Mason
When you start everybody and everything
is there with you past present friends family
critics strangers and all the greats
the empty brain-washed canvas
brushes oily rags
paintswirls on the palette
waiting
or the empty pages in your head
words flit like
hummingbirds
then finally
all leave one by one
you’re all alone
and then
if you’re lucky
really lucky on this day
you leave too
I’ve been writing prose and poetry since I was six. Won the Ist prize in Seventeen Magazine’s short story contest at 17 and several poetry prizes through the years. I write because I cannot help myself. I write to empty out the thoughts I cannot hold inside a day or hour more.