The Unfinished Artist
By Sam Lopez
He walks into his room,
his studio,
his escape from life,
to find incomplete paintings on the floor.
A single tree stands in an empty field,
where an enormous forest has yet to arrive.
Where a young couple would be shown dancing together,
a single female silently stands with arms grasping the air.
A giant canvas will one day hold a masterpiece of the final battle between heaven and hell,
but only shows a monstrous flame and a single demon.
He looks up on the wall to admire his only finished painting: an image of two men painted from behind, walking along a single path while conversing with each other. The man on the left in jeans and a t-shirt talks while the other, an old man in a white robe, simply listens.
A self-portrait, his current work, sits on a stand.
An outline of the head is drawn,
with only one ear
and half a nose.
The brown eyes stare back at the Artist,
asking, will I ever be complete,
or forever be a work in progress?
Always
incomplete,
and
never
finished.
That’s it!
The Artist places the canvas on the wall,
realizing that what keeps it unfinished,
finishes it
