her life is a sketchbook
each drawing a conflict
encountered and confronted
softly blended colored pencils,
emotions that surged
through her body,
hicomy lightning
that tingled down her spine.
she flips to an unfinished
black and white portrait
shaded in pencil
young grinning boy
an array of medals
around his neck
from a sparring competition;
karate.
she gets out her pencil
to finish the portrait
she never entertained the thought
its end would come so soon
writes a few words:
To Arthur "Karate Kid" Miller
died on 02 May 1998
at age fourteen.