Likeness
Paint cakes the bristles in thick lumps
It tears
It pulls
It refuses to detach
The sink bleeds slowly
In slate grey
In Blue Lake
In Red Ochre
In Yellow Light
On the table the painting lies
Fields are blocks
Skies are bare
Trees are lines
The brush won’t paint
The knife is ready
To scratch life into oil
Michael Bennett was born in 1987 and grew up in Suffolk. His short fiction and poetry have been published by Litro, The Lampeter Review, Jon McGregor’s The Letters Page, and several online journals. When not writing, he plays the viola, paints, and makes things out of paper. Outdoors, he tries to learn the names and ways of plants.