The Agony Of Pale

the colours were strident
bold rich beautiful
dazzling singing
off the canvas

the white knight
brandishing his sword
invincible
riding wild
bleeding the black knight
to mere memory of grey ash

the world said
"it's too bright
it's too loud
it's too fast
turn down the dial man
gesso white out
the canvas"

now reduced to
 whiter than pale
unrecognizably bleached
to the ethereal shade
of acceptance and resignation

it props up a broken window
in a shed
 unnoticed in a veil of cobwebs
and the world nods its head
wisely in approval