A Straight Line

A broken cylinder of blue sidewalk chalk rested against the curb. I picked it up. The pigment left dry powder across my palms. I knelt at the seam of a concrete slab. Placing the flat edge against the groove, I drew my arm backward in a single, continuous sweep. The rough pavement abraded the chalk with a low scrape. A solid pale blue stripe now spans sixty centimeters, linking both expansion joints without deviation. The chalk is three millimeters shorter. I set it down at the terminus. The division of the slab is now visible.