The painter

Guilt untreated can change the artist's ability

Sometimes I look back at the pictures of my life, the past paints so many memories.

What do you do when you see only the ugly looking back at you?

Where do you hide from the damage you caused?

The lives you changed forever with your lies and secrets?

There is no hiding from the paintings that rot in the recesses of the memory.

You're lucky if you learn from the past enough to change your future,

you're lucky if you salvage yourself in the wreckage.

No one will see you beyond the chaos.

No one will know you behind your mask.

One step in the right direction, changes a color of paint, changes a brush stroke.

One admission of guilt begins to change the hand of the artist until finally,

 after the heartache subsides,

 a new artist emerges capable of new beauty.

The old paintings will fade but will never go away, all this life has to offer Is time.

Time for healing, time for changing, time for growing and loving and moving forward.

Far enough into the future to drown out the hauntings of the past.

My past.

 My ghosts.