A Comfortable Friendship

I sit here
talking to the artist
while she sketches herself,
not knowing that I the poet, am writing of her
while she is absorbed in her portrait.

More critical of herself than of others
she doesn’t see the amount of talent that she has,
the beauty she possesses
the beauty she shares with others.

She is a puzzle
so much more complicated
than the puzzles
she always finds in others.

We sit in silence,
her with her sketchpad,
I can hear her pencil scratching the paper,
me with my laptop,
my fingers dancing across the keyboard,
each absorbed in our craft.

A comfortable friendship,
we chat with each other
as we work
of art
of writing
things of the world
life’s difficulties.

This is not the poem
she would wish me to write
but it is the one that is in my head
as I sit here writing
while she sketches.

© Michele Markley 2009