Elegy for a Gel Pen

Another poem from guest writer Barbara Swander Miller!

Photo by Adrien Ledoux on Unsplash

Cobalt splatters, semi-permanent stains,

slowly seep into the ridge of my cuticle

and underneath

my wide, jagged nail

my faintly lined knuckle,  

hypnotizing me.

My defective pen lives on

in a Rorschach image-- to be studied,

deciphered

and

interpreted like the pattern

of tea leaves left in a flowered cup, then

picked at and rub…