Today I saw her smile break (over again -

Hope cracked open and spilling out her eyes to drain away

Like the colour in her face)

And it hurt just as much as it did the first time

I cried with her and my pencil stained the page with her sad eyes and crumpled excuse for a smile to commemorate

The broken Lance on my page

I sketch and ink and shade and

I grieve best in empathy in black and white and grey

In words and forms stretching and spinning across the page

I grieve best in empathy

On paper

And on paper in empathy in pity in love

I am inimitable