Le Mot Juste

Loose leaves rustle. 
The gray light of evening dips and sways 
and night closes in. 
Gone are the jays and the wagtails, 
the harbingers of better days. 

No fancy gadgets, 
just a jar of pencils newly sharpened. 
The clatter of a typewriter 
haunts the silence, like a woodpecker 
probing for nutrition, finding little. 

Curtains flutter. 
She's shabbily dressed and thin. 
A lonely candle sputters as she struggles. 
Notes and erasers jostle for position, 
still no inspiration to brighten her face. 

Coffee and cigarettes, 
vodka and tears, and none will curb her fears 
of ever grasping white from black, 
light from limbo, the curse of the damned, 
the never land that has her jammed. 

One word, one spark 
of enlightenment nudges her back. 
Excitement whacks her like a sharp evening breeze, 
and her fingers are dancing all over the keys.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2016

Poem

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Bauer Avatar
March 21, 2016 at 6:35 PM
i love this, keith! the mood of despair is so perfectly described that the ending comes as a delightful surprise and i actually felt like cheering! (i think all writers can relate...)
Bickerstaffe Avatar
March 21, 2016 at 6:59 PM
Thanks Ilene! I really enjoyed writing this one. Best wishes, Keith
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