Last Year in Montclair

last year
i left a ballpoint pen
in a park in Montclair
and last week it wrote to me a letter
saying it missed our
Sunday crosswords
and the way I signed my name.

“my last name is Coleman now”
it said
and told me of the man
who used my pen for signing checks
and contracts
and kept it in a pressed blue suit
beside his hundred dollar bills

i wrote back
with an awkward pause
as I introduced my new pen
(who was thinner
and stayed inked longer)
and I admitted with regret
that the local paper
now longer ran our crossword

I promised that we would get together
sometime
for coffee, write a letter to the paper
for old times sake

---

Isaac Graf, age 17
San Antonio, Texas
Submitted independently