A/N: Written for the Another Mega Prompts Challenge at the AMF, writing prompt #015 – poetry collection using a single meter pattern throughout. The meter I've chosen is the sonnet pattern.
Ways Paintings Lie
1. Stains of Brushes
There is a brush that flutters in the breeze,
its bristles still plain, and dry, barely used
and yet, the soft sheen of oil is at ease
the tender, dark brown and black streaks, diffused
despite how diligently it was cleaned.
They left far more ugly marks when they weren't
in the sky and sun, where the soaked oil gleamed
but on a paper, where they scratched and burnt
an image of lolling grass or sweet wind
blowing past sweeter smelling bright flowers,
scarring that pretty face with streaks unkind
but without force, or meaning, just stark blurs
that could not hide within the painting skin,
unlike in the bristles, like a sin.