I have a number of wonderful binders –

a half-page green
marble com-
position, wide-rule;

a handmade leather
sketchbook unlined
from High Peak Craft, Tucson, Arizona, complete
with a leather loop to tie around
a post, to tassel shut;

a traditional 5-
subject $2.59
college-rule
with pocketed dividers,
perforated pages

– to name a few, in which I collect,
scribe and pray.

I occasionally doodle en obscura,
white space
I cordon off, masterful strokes,
black felt-tip markings, marginalia
that I intend to evolve someday.

Snippets, idea-ettes,
need water, vigorous nurturing
to imbue them with form.

Each one on their own not much,
but collectively a definitive assortment
of their own reckoning.

The words concise, intentionally imprecise,
neatly contained in inches, blocks sized
two by two, or four by four,

like so many
synapse
whistling
a happy tune
along
the
dusty
trail.

© Carlos Chagall, 2013