went out for a walk and a few steps saw
a pencil on the sidewalk picked it up
purple like new
strides took me outside the town
holding the pencil - entered the forest
looked for paper found a fast-food arby's wrapper
tore it into strips looked around for a writing surface
followed a skunk marsh path and crossed a crumbled bridge
a flat broken plank from the bridge lay clean
smooth for writing - but to write about? then–
a squadron of dragonflies strafed
a rabbit stared from the edge of a mound yonder
a dark arch called me, a corridor of maple trees
with new purple pencil on the torn arby’s bag and the plank
sat down on the aged gray log –
scribbled, a little kid with new toys– 








3.2 10/9

© Brian Peter Hodgkinson