Art Ache

We waltzed in stokes.
We slid and bent.
We lifted, caressed.
We captured the rapture.
So much
welled up and spilled out
onto the page.

But you left my studio.

Now with no way to express,
paint pools deep in my chest,
and I scratch the dry white canvas,
sadly scratch the canvas.

As my worn and washed brush brushes blank cloth,
the image disappoints.
A shade haunts the sheet
manifest in this featureless masterpiece.
It bears no hint of you.

Beauty unbeautiful.
I’m suffering from what I thought we could make,
from an art ache.