poem of the day 03.03.15

written on paper

i assure you this poem was

written on paper

but how can you be so sure?

most likely we don’t know each other

or if we do you know

i’m not the most reliable thing out there

you’re probably reading this poem

on a computer

or at the very least on a phone

but i guarantee you it was

written on paper

at best i made a few changes

when i was typing it into the machine

the line: but how can you be so sure?

was originally just: how can you be so sure?

i added the fourth, fifth and sixth lines just now

and the line breaks i did the next day

but for the most part this poem was

written on paper

i can even describe the notebook i used

it was a tan boardroom series

seven inches by five inches

stamped american made

for all of you patriots out there

i have poem notes and movie times

and even a new york city address for dvorak

written on the cover

there’s a smudge on the second line of the poem

the one that conveniently reads

written on paper

it was made by a thick 1.0 pilot g-2 pen that i’m using

and helped along by the shitty driving

of the B4 bus driver

i don’t write so many poems on paper anymore

almost all of them used to start out that way

these days i read on the way home

listen to neil young

or just zone out and take stock of my life

i’m less the go-getter than i used to be

i think that comes with age

but i’m feeling lonesome this evening

lonesome for something tangible

it might be the american made stamped in me

that’s making me feel this way

but i wanted something solid tonight

something concrete and real

like these words

written on paper

that only took up two pages and half

on this notebook

whose metal spirals are starting to give

from age and a lack of use.