WHEN INK RUNS DRY

What causes ink to run dry

News calamitous, shocking, despondent

Alarming enough to cause tear stains

that line cheeks like ruts on a carriageway

The disappearing breath on a misted mirror

as fleeting as thought itself

dying on the wasted remains of a broken pen

An escaping collective sigh

as the lid of memoirs pries open

releasing the last ties of a relationship

What causes ink to run dry

The futile effort in drawing breath

that exhales as a rattling wheeze;

the losing battle of life's last billows

A silent vacant permanent stare

on a page that remains pristine

waiting to be stroked alive

A desert camp geographically displaced

from the last known oasis

because of the wrong star in the east

What causes ink to run dry

The final adieu, A last goodbye

or just a hiatus to rearrange life

while the barrel refills