Untitled, Oil on Canvas
Oils on canvas are
sensitive to the
oils on skin are
sensitive to my touch
as I reach out and
feel the ridges left
behind by your brush.
I wonder if you ever
let your hand wander
over the piece you
made, maybe to
check if it was
dry or just to
feel the hardened
paint imprint itself
under your index
finger for a second before
you move it away and
mark your signature
in the corner. I want
to think that this
paint was something we
both traced ourselves across,
decades apart,
a silent connection
forged when I realized
I have so little of you.
If we can run our fingers
over here again, I can have
something not colored by
the stories of worn adults or
my forgetful childhood eyes but instead
by the delicate movement of
your wrist, a paintbrush, oil on
canvas and all the time needed
to trace our fingers across it.
Susan Romance is currently a junior at SUNY Geneseo, with a major in English and a minor in film studies. She splits her time between her home in Cheektowaga, NY and Geneseo, and enjoys writing poems, listening to music, and playing with her cats.