shoulda-coulda  /  in '63

I could have demanded a drawing completed by her hand alone

as a replacement for the one she destroyed done by my hand;

reached for a large eraser, pliable enough to rearrange

her tracks, yelled and screamed into her narrow face: "you bitch"!,

and shot her in the head right between the eyes––

with the exhaled paper wrap of a straw, then wished her away

into the cornfield of the twilight zone. 

or maybe...

I should have kept the drawing as it was

with my compressed charcoal marks and her

compressed charcoal marks, spray-fixed for longevity,

matted and framed to tell my story of woe,

to hang in its riven mess for the student exhibition

at the home gallery, and beneath my "drawing-to-last-a-lifetime",

placed a little paper plaque proclaiming:

“Composite Drawing by: William D'Elia and Joyce Reopel” / 1963 / NFS