This Book Was Written

on Blue Horse lined paper

bought for ten cents

from the nice lady

who kept her store

in the tiny closet

across the hall

from Mrs. Bumper’s

principal’s office

where I never got a paddling

though, the fact

that Mrs. Bumpers knew

my parents was worse.

I didn’t buy the paper

from the store,

the lady always wore

a gray apron full of pockets

and pushed a cart

filled with paper,

yellow wooden pencils

erasers, big and little

glue and paste.

On these pages

of three ring paper

I have written my life.