It’s been a while since I dabbled in poetry. But the mood struck this morning, and this one flowed out.

The Grade School Rule

In grade school,
teachers always told us
to use pencils.
“Ink is too permanent,”
they would warn.
“Use your pencil.
Especially for math and spelling.”
They expected mistakes
that we would have to remove,
and they didn’t want us
to ruin the page.

Life doesn’t listen to 
the teachers’ advice.
We are handed a pen at birth
to start scrawling our stories.
Sometimes,
maybe,
a chapter can be salvaged
by scribbling out errant words.
But the blemish on the page –
an ugly dark slash of ink – 
remains,
unable to be erased.