Nib and Ink
I remember desks with inkwells
and dipping the nib of my pen
in the ink and struggling to write
an impromptu (when I’d rather
be looking out the autumn window
at gliding red and yellow leaves),
straining to write fluidly in the mandatory
connected manuscript we’d been taught
dipping the nib repeatedly to keep
up with thoughts now lagging
my fingers as they race across
the laptop’s QWERTY keyboard,
and I remember the blotter on my desktop
and the blotter in my three-ring notebook,
and I remember when the ballpoint
replaced the nib and ink.