Faced-With-Fears Of A Wide Blank-Canvass Poem by Mark Heathcote

My love for you is not in remission yet.
I have put myself on a suicide watch
but meantime, without heartfelt regret
I'll pour my debt of tears alone into scotch.

Neat, without ice or water till I forget
these wounds are like a flattened forest.
This wound where my heart's blood & love & sweat-
filled landscape aspects of a painter's orbit.

Now I'm faced with fears of a wide blank-canvass
I have to choose my pallet wisely. Paint my portrait-
a new - not knowing my subjects, abstractness,
I have to join and mend these dots of heartbreak.

Put down the scotch, and find my line of view,
each colour, medium, feels alien - eschew.
But it isn't long till I have a new smile on my face
and I put my old wares back in the marketplace.