Somewhere Poem by Roger Gerald Hicks

Let's say two painters agree
to paint on the same canvas,
gaze at their paint store -
some new (many old)some
paints dried out;
many brushes brittle, ragged.

What paint should they use
on the tableau before them?
what kind of picture shall it be?

Can they agree on who
gets what part of the canvas?
Can they sort out how they
should lay down the paint?

Perhaps one alone
has a good white paint.
Perhaps the other alone
has a great onyx.
Do they agree to share
paint; share everything?

Are they critical of what
They are putting together?
What they are working on?

Do they hold back anything?
wait - see in what manner
the picture will materialize?

Or do they just splatter
paint all over canvas;
in rapture with the thrill
of creating, creating
moved onward by the
unknown.... trembling.