Do not trust the eraser

for Gabrielle Civil & Madhu H. Kaza

Do not trust the eraser. Prefer
crossed out, scribbled over monuments
to something once thought correct
. Instead: colors, transparencies
track changes, versions, iterations
. How else might you return
after discards, attempts
and mis takes, to your 
original genius
?

Copyright © 2022 by Rosamond S. King. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 1, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.