Young Writers Project is a creative, online community of teen writers and visual artists that started in Burlington in 2006. Each week, VTDigger publishes the writing and art of young Vermonters who post their work on youngwritersproject.org, a free, interactive website for youth, ages 13-19. To find out more, please go to youngwritersproject.org or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org; (802) 324-9538.
Charcoal
Gretchen Wertlieb, 17, South Burlington
Charcoal
is our preferred method
with which to sketch our days:
thick, dark swaths of pigment
that smear and make their mark
unapologetically,
abstract, flowing, influential,
or as gashes across the page
like wounds that won’t close.
And neither are ugly,
though we can’t erase them.
They are the foundations of your life,
but details make the picture –
the careful lines and smudges;
noticing a twinkling eye,
or smiling with all your teeth.
And everyone you meet
is drawing their own
conclusions and beginnings,
unfinished works
marbled with messy, rushed greetings
and slow, agonizing goodbyes.
Strapped to our backs and worn on our sleeves are these masterpieces,
every day being dotted
with someone else’s charcoall.
Our sketches are never finished,
but always beautiful.
But we forget, somehow:
We are all art.
