Masked Artwork

by Elizabeth DiBenedetto
Mosaic Musings
Honorable Mention, April 2007
Judged by Bryan Appleyard


With artist’s palette, brush and hues in hand
she decorates the drabness of the day –
thin dabs of sanguine on an ashen land,
soft strokes conceal what she will not betray.

The doctors canvassed charts, discussing test
results; a darkish blot had showed when scanned,
a teardrop shape – and still she paints her best
with artist palette, brush and hues in hand.

She hides discolorations of her life
by touching up the downs, a bit of spray,
then casting shadows with a shaping knife.
She decorates the drabness of the day

to filter out the fading tints of sin
in youthful days. A woman in command,
when strength and courage were immersed within-
thin dabs of sanguine on an ashen land.

Her gallery is now a storage shed
of artwork which will never be displayed –
each dappled bloom now lives among the dead;
soft strokes conceal what she will not betray.