No Name Xi

No Name XI
(Writer's block)
by JlB
Aug. 15 2009.

The black ink pen on the blank, blue-lined pad mocks me.
It mocks me; it does. 

Mutual oppression, the aftermath,
a boredom. 
It mocks me; it blocks me,
it does.

Surely, it is not I who am blocking myself, 
I beseech you to implore, 
O Black Pen on the blue-lined pad
on my wooden desk: 

Surely, it is not I who am blocking myself,
to the wooden box of mocking pens sitting atop my wooden shelf:

Page after page, I say, blank on my desk-- 
Day after day, it stays, 
the pen empty,
--and content to rest.

I contest,
Stay, the pen, empty,
and mocking the pad,

Stay, the pen, empty, 
ticking, tocking 
-and mad,

Stay, the pen, empty, 
the pen:
empty...
alas...
-


O black pen on page after page,
blank-- 
on my wooden desk, 

Surely, it is not I stalking and plaguing myself,
not I, o Black Pen, meerly jeering in jest, 
pompous and plastic,
and imbued with distress-- 

loving itself, 
condemning the rest. 
-


O Black Pen:
page after page, 
--blank,
on my wooden desk.

I say,
is it to you or t'scotch, I invest...
-

A boredom,
it mocks me; it blocks me, 
it does!

O Black Pen,
the woe, 
the pain,
the agony!

A silence,
A silence.
A silence that's maddening! 
--

JlB