=Pencil=

Remember the day you forgot to bring
your pencilcase, the small, soft, velvety one
Yoü loved so much. You asked me,
in your silky voice, for a pencil, for a day;
Your fingers deftly reached, before I even moved,
for my faded pencilcase, rummaging for-
And you chose- my favourite pencil.

"Thanks!" you smiled, twirling triumphantly,
between your graceful fingers, your flailing
Hair across my desk and my silent pencil;
and I wondered how you could do that all
An entire day, I watched you sitting beside me
from afar, heard my pencil scratching away
Near my arms, grasped comfortably by your
conscientious hand lost amidst your art-
Kid-like doodles and complicated sketches-
your compulsive handwriting, your compellingly
Serious expression and the shadows in your hair.

My heart could not bear, when the day was ending,
to part with my favourite pencil, or to separate
You from it. I dare not ask and feigned
forgetfulness, but you did not forget,
Lazily reaching for my pencilcase, for a moment
you looked at me for a while, pencil poised
Over the opening, fingers frantically tangled
with your silken hair, and asked me,
Very softly, so very softly, with your eyes,
if you could keep the pencil, but you did not,
Expertly twirling it away into my faded memory.