Trace

The difference between a clean slate
                                and a blank one
is a twist of lime-
stone,
made into a helix,
stacked with sedimentary
                            amphibious bones 
& the ligature of
dead words
                    around broken muscles,

like the lines left lingering
and entwined, woven through
resting vessels
                     slack and un-taut
across some surfaces
namely, Others
                              in a hurry to sea
this contrast.

The blackboard could not be red
in such low light.

Anyway,
erasure like evolution was never complete.


Painting (watercolor) by Thomas Girtin [Public domain], (undated) via Wikimedia Commons.