Barton Jahncke (Loose String Child) - Ballpoint

This next poem also comes from a very talented artist from Winterset, Iowa; Barton Jahncke! If you are interested in submitting work, you still have time! Send your work to midwestwritingcenter@gmail.com

Enjoy!

Loose String Child - Ballpoint

I've never used ballpoint because it was irreversible.

There was no eraser so if I wanted to get rid of a mistake,

I'd scratch over the unwanted words blocking out the verse from my sight,

but still leaving me with the inky blue lines.

I created evidence of something that wasn't meant to be, there was no button to delete my browse history 

only a button that clicked inky blue scars into my paper rocket ship.

No backspace in this place 

but this ballpoint started a race 

that Neil Armstrong couldn't win.

I begin to fill out pages,

I begin to set stages,

The curtains have only started to open,

And this show is amazing.

A show of hands making fire

And now that paper is blazing

Passages make passages,

Doorways open into rooms

Connecting dots in my head

Revealing skeletons in their tombs,

Stoned I don't think so but I rock when I need to,

I'm in a brain cell now

Braking out with some spoons,

Making headlines in the news

How is that for a scoop,

When I take away my foundation 

The hole becomes a clue

But I do 

what it takes to escape 

The bars blocking my view.

I'm back out on the streets

But my records don't change

Yeah I may be free

what I did doesn't go away.

Even though the locks are broken 

I'm still in chains.

This inmate is innate and 

I am striving to escape 

What I live with everyday.

But you know

Freedom isn't free, dumb.

A price is paid for everything 

And I've been bought like a lunch

Before only one course 

now a complete meal

The stripes He earned and gave away

Like Kellogg's cereal 

Before I was a frosted flake

Now a honey nut cheerio.

Bring back that spoon so we can feast on some freedom.

I've got my notebook next to me 

and a fresh ballpoint pen

I think it's about time I started writing again

Only this time I don't need to erase 

It's already done by grace

So I can write with pride filling up the lines with the waves of the ocean blue ink

Crafting each individual grain of sand on this beach 

Only shade I'm gonna throw is from an umbrella fella I'm good and done being a free, dumb, felon.