Katherine Chmielewski

Anonymity

I sit at my desk
with my sketchbook
drawing a character
who could be me.
But she wears a mask
And anything-
Anything could be under it.

It could be a cactus or a lamp which one could hold
up in the dead of night to look for ghosts.
It could be a photo of a dimmed play place
Or a hallway
with too many doors that scribble on the mind.
It could be an inky abyss
too dark to perceive without going mad.
Or it could be filled with radio static
Or colorbars or the menu of a Wii when the AV cables are plugged in wrong.
It could be nothing
yet anything
all at the same time.
It could even be a face, if you can imagine it.

Graphite marks my paper,
etching heavy marks.
Obscuring her face
Even further
And contently, comfortingly
Hiding me
behind the anything.

Katherine Chmielewski is a third-year college student at Champlain College, and is studying game design and interactive narrative. But when she’s not conquering her mountain of schoolwork, she is busy being the silliest of goofballs with the Los Dormant Volcanoes Improv Troupe.