Colouring in the Gaps

As you painstakingly pick your way

Following the lines on your page,

Colouring in tiny patterns, piecing

Together your world, it gradually emerges,

Surfacing slowly like a darkroom negative.

Each gentle pencil stroke leads you

Closer a final result, completion

The end goal, a page bursting with

Colour, the glory of life highlighted

Through a system of organized tones.

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Each hue speaks to its neighbour,

Lines rubbing shoulders with burnt orange,

Yellows with reds, blues with purples,

Consecutive yellows merge with magenta.

And as the patterns swirl and lock the eye

Vine-like to the page, and all those hours

Of concentration build into the retina,

Receiving the effort required to complete,

I find myself admiring you ever more.

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JRTF

11/06/2016