THE ARTIST

Fingers black with lead
She pauses for her own
unique criticism
Poised forever in frozen motion
Graceful figures
await her verdict

The half-created ballroom around them
Is captured forever in beauty of a vision
A sweep here to cause a woman's
hair to glow
A brush to deepen the shadows
The false moonlight spilling
through the paper window
Lights the room and brings a smile to her lips

Next, a beautiful face
That remains trapped in eternal youth
Eyes gazing out at her maker
smile unfaltering
The dress is not quite right,
but that can be fixed
She reaches for her magic wand
And strays across the ink
In one fatal sweep
Darkness overcomes the land
Drowning its dancers and blocking
the moonlight

A desperate rescue attempt
is made
To save at least one
To save the beautiful girl
at least!
But alas her smile
is blurred by the darkness
Her dress ruined beyond repair

Oh such a weep was there
When her paper children died