I molded grainy ocher
with dirty newsprint made
thumbprint cheekbones
over wire frames built
peaks of pigment
listened to the whop snap
of the canvas’s answer

my eyes were green 
& untumbled 
set in shaded sockets
like black-out curtains
drawn against 
a messy house

he found me 
an undiscovered element
by melting granite ore
he uncovered he revealed
he discovered he found
he came from a long
line of casual conquerors

did I see
the context of ages
swift stroke of sable
line & scale
layers of excavated azurite 
& cochineal crimson
the masters used

did I see where the canvas
indents just there & there
he would take my
form and make it function
he would make my
talent perform for him
 
he would train
my agate eyes
put his net over
my flitting fingers
pin them to the
straight white board
for study 
& display
Mo Lynn Stoycoff 's work has appeared in Intima, Rise Up Review, South Broadway Ghost Society, California Quarterly, Speckled Trout Review, and other journals and anthologies. Mo works in the performing arts and lives on the colonized land of the Patwin people in Central California.
header image: Sunsetona via Pexels