Girl Disappearing

If your life was a picture
someone hung on a wall –
a painting or drawing
someone put time and effort into –
I’d be the girl you cannot see
because the artist
painted over me, drew me out,
decided I didn’t quite fit
the way he originally thought.

But, if you looked hard enough,
past the pencil erasures
and oil brush strokes,
you might see this girl disappearing
out of your life;

and maybe, just maybe, you’d decide
I wasn’t quite the misfit
you originally saw.

Maybe you’d take the picture
down from your wall,
take it back to the artist
on your day off
and ask to draw me back in,
start all over,
paint me head to toe
with the familiar colors that I am,
find a way to fit me in again…

But your life is not a picture
that someone hung on a wall,
and “maybe” leads
only to a blank canvas
full of possibility,
disappointment,
hope, and dread
of who you will let the artist
include
and who the artist
accidentally
left out.