Paper, barely white, ashen like your complexion, faded charcoal shading, smudged not erased.

Each time, it looks a little less like you.

You seldom model, but were you here, I’d place a page upon your face, trace the outline of a smile.

Instead, I pierce the surface with sharpened lead.

Steven Holding lives in the United Kingdom. His story TURNING A TRICK appears in the collection BLOODLUST from Black Hare Press. You can follow his work at stevenholding.co.uk.