Art Prep

I wonder about you sometimes:
I knew you had potential, the skill.
And here it is: your assignment.
The first one you've completed since the year begun.

I marvel at your work. The detail.
Then I think of what it means.
I asked you all to draw something of the everyday:
And this is the product of your pencil.

I wonder at you. I really do.

Of course, I know all about what happened at home.
Your father who never returned from war.
But it's not about that, is it?
I wish you'd confide in me. I've given you chances.
But then, They tell me I give too much time. I hear their talk.
I'm too close, They say. Too close.
I just want to help. To listen. No-one else does in this place.

I wonder:
They're still breathing, aren't they? I can almost see the gentle pulse of their breasts.
Tell me they're breathing.
I look again: the bottom one. So still.
And I realise.
What you see,
Of the everyday.
That one.
It's
Me.