Day 6: Lobject’s black construction paper

Crayola markers don’t discover their potential

on black construction paper, so she always ends

up with a pack of only black paper, maybe a few

pieces of yellow, only the round outline after sun.

Each muddy mark hides beauty. She deconstructs

black paper, mangling a series of  lopsided circles,

calling them cats, scoring out teeth with scissors and

creating shadows by cutting rounded, jagged edges.

Until there was nothing else to do with black paper

but use it for grass, trees, animals—a haunted forest.

Then her dream house—black becoming shingles,

shudders, a chimney, doorways, and stepping stones.

Each creation a new manipulation of black, paper,

glue, scissors, fantasies, and refrigerator innovations.