Mikaela Castledine #335 Drawing Breath (for Carol Archer)

Riffing on Carol Archer's Drawing Breath

Drawing breath you need a pencil

B for black and H for hard

5H  for draughting still 

sometimes fine is needed

clear and light

sharp shallow or scored deep

and hardly visible

Then perhaps 6B

for the dark gasp

blurred on the stamp edge of the fist

charcoal for the Cheyne Stoke drift

cloudy on the surface

milky on the mirror

such erasable breath

roughing in the shadow

with the hazy edge of the lead