Today’s Poem

Lesson on Gripping a Pencil

Told me to look around and see how does your neighbor
grip their pencil? What is the position of their thumb, 
index, and middle finger? No, this won’t do. 
All the small muscles in my hand went jellyfish. 
He cannot hold the tripod grip, I over heard
this and something about developmental and tissues. 
Sometimes I held it as a paintbrush, praying
to draw the words out to do my work. 
Then it became as an ice pick might, chipping 
away the recess hours in punishment at a desk. 
Thirty years later I hold this pencil like a small bird
I’ve entered in an agreement with and we get along fine.

-Jason Braun