It Could Have Been a Masterpiece

for Greg Lazrus

Ten short years
The Artist leaned into his tottering
Old easel, drawing graphite
Shapes and lines of a boy.

Ten years more
The Artist mixed colors on his palette,
Coaxing from oils
Shades and hues of a man.

As the portrait neared completion,
The Artist, as artists will do,
Scrubbed the canvas with
Turpentine.

— Stace Johnson, 1987