The below was the final poem in my published book Artsy Fartsy (Alternating Current Press, 2012) dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Jim Johnston, and this poem is now dedicated to the memory of his wife and my grandmother, Barbara Johnston, who passed away this morning. 
 

everything is written in pencil


The eraser
chafes
the paper,

tainting
blank canvasses
with the graphite
ghosts of my
mistakes,

until my skin
sloughs
off dead
tree cells

and brushes the
consequences of
thoughtless actions
away.