Pentimenti

It's not simply

that the top image

wears off or

goes translucent;

things underneath

come back up ,

having enjoyed the

advantages of rest.

That's the hardest

part to bear, how

the decided-against

fattens one layer down,

free of the tests

applied to final choices.

In this painting,

for instance, see how

a third arm-long ago

repented by the artist-

is revealed, giving

the painting an odd

asymmetric contemporary

kind of India-Indian appeal.

Structure

22 lines · 1 stanza