Lined paper

What is so good about blank paper?

And its demand for perfection

Its blinding brightness

Pure white for art complete

And all else is waste

Why white paper?

Because its basic and dull

Easily influenced

By a perfect stroke of paint

From your perfect pretty paint set?

Or perhaps

you enjoy a canvas

void of imperfections

because, afterall

white paper is for art

and as such

all art is for white paper

I prefer lined paper

That doesn’t care

About erase marks

Tainting its purity

About the sketches

Unaligned in the uniformity

That blank paper demands

Lined paper

Encourages ideas

That revels in the fact

That you can mess up

That permanence is false

And anything goes

Because then again,

Why would you want

A drawing on lined paper?

So I prefer lined paper

Filled with possibilities

Disorderly yet perfect

In organized chaos

Sketches and doodles

Sharing the same space

As the uncompleted math homework

Due the next day