PAPER LIFE

My life began as a blank piece of paper,  

A clean slate,

Whole, a loving family of four.

Years passed, and sections were filled,

Memories brushed on in a splatter of hues and shades;

The pristiness of innocence a mix-matched palette of colors, replaced.

Primary school started as quick as it ended, and new memories pigmented the paper;

New colors, new language, new home, new country,

Tones of tints overlapped and soon the old was buried.

It was sudden, the change;

Vibrant colors faded into the shadows of shades,

A palette murky with aging hues as time was wished unmade.

As a stroke of red streaked across the paper,

And blood red spikes dwindled flat down the line,

Ringing softly as it crooned, “Goodbye…”

Above Manhattan, the sky blurred with ashes and smoke

As fire engulfed the paper once part of my life,

Now as black as the widow, no longer a wife.

My life became a charred strip of paper,

A marred slate,

In broken state, a family of three as of late.