Bill Grace - Pencil Power

Mrs. Arnold, one comment please!
In your insistence that we learn to write in ink
During that frightful transition sometimes called middle school
You could not know how severly the world would change
Even after you were in your grave.

So while the enthronement of ink's nonfading virture
Is nice and appropriate for history and many social things
Your love could not know Viet Nam would be my war
And pencil power would save me from it.

For though much maligned in my thinking which was yours
The humble pencil has two stellar virtues with all due respect to ink technology
The leaded line is faint but more than adequate to a day's survival
And even more important submits comfortably in change
To its eraser's power.

Bill Grace

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/pencil-power/