noir portrait, by Lisa Cantwell

i tried to sketch the moon from memory
last night but came up short    tried to capture
the nuanced dark basalt in graphite
on archival acid free paper
and ended up with smudge and streak    blinded   
by afterimage      losing ability 
to gauge perspective    how did i complicate 
this through a smokescreen of charcoal erasure    
is this my narrating self or self trapped 
in memento mori    girl crawls on kitchen 
floor to corner     sees spot on wall where moonlight 
punched hole           grabs blade from acacia 
knife block and broken guitar b string     
begin story in medias res