BLANK PAGE, THE

THE BLANK PAGE

The blank page conspires to keep secrets

from future, curious pilgrims who

seek to discover, comprehend

and address the pain, anguish, discontent of

friend, sister, colleague.

The blank page empty of clue, story and hint,

stares from history's yesterday,

deprives the dreamers, other lonely,

half-filled builders of creation

their designed reason for taking up space.

The blank page laughs with cruel glee at

the incomplete souls who

need words of language to fill and be filled with

more than the debris of cynics and idiots.

The blank page watches,

absorbs, swallows, defeats,

drains those feeble efforts of the

created-impulse-to-create,

to change the outcome, and

challenge destiny.

Richard E. Lake