as a new challenge arises.
I have watched others do it
and now I long
to possess this talent as well.
Clean, white paper
waiting to be brought to life
with words of flowing ink.
The pen makes contact
with the bright surface,
and the ink begins to flow,
but not the way I wanted it to.
Instead of swooping, graceful words,
I get sharp, jagged marks.
Frowning, I dip the pen
and try again
and again
and again.
Brow furrowed in concentration,
I dip the pen a final time,
but by now my hands are shaky,
nervous at the thought of failure.
The word starts fine,
and I can see the beginning
of graceful letters,
but at the end
the pen slips,
and the mistakes return.
That's it.
I hurl the pages across the room,
and they fly everywhere.
I curl into a ball
and cry.
I weep with the sense of failure.
Anger and frustration
leech out of me.
Then I feel something sharp
poke my foot.
Through the tears brimming in my eyes,
I see two sheets of paper
flutter to the ground.
The first page and the last page
that I wrote on.
I reach out to crumple them
and toss them away,
but then I stop
and as I compare the two,
I realize that the second page
looks different than the first.
The words are smoother,
telling a story of success and improvement,
not of failure.
So I wipe away the tears
pick up the pages
and keep writing.
Spoiler
I would appreciate some help with a title, because I had a few ideas, but none of them seemed to work. Also, any other comments are welcome!
