Through the Years -- A Piece of Published Work

No Other Picture  (Published in the WWC Gadfly, '02-'03)

This boy sits, crossed legged on a hard wooden floor -- on the other side of the window, staring at a white canvas. Wet pools of color -- reds, yellows and blues lay next to him, drying minute-by-unused-minute. Screams of laughter pierce the thin glass that separates him from inspiration. Smoke from a cigar seeps through the closed window and within his reach; and he blinks, lowers his head and runs a clammy hand through his shaggy, uncombed hair because of it. He then glances around his studio-bedroom. There are dozens of paintings -- some on the wall, some merely resting against it on the hard wooden floor. All of them are of a girl... the same girl, really. The only difference in any of the paintings is the color of the girl's eyes. With a long, slow sigh the boy turns back to the white piece of canvas in front of him. A Harley roars by beneath his window and he runs his hand across the canvas -- feeling for something he can't manage to see, or hear, or smell; and yet something he knows to be there -- hidden, hiding. A band finishes their set and another begins their own at the small bar across the street. The same Harley rides by, going the other way this time, and still the boy searches the white canvas. Finally he gives up, letting his hand drop to the paints at his side. Knowing there is no other picture he can paint, the boy closes his eyes to remember, and picks up his brush. This time, he decides to begin with the eyes.