Do objects have feelings?
If so, I bet pencils would be very tired.
Working all day, moving as we write.
A hand cramp for us
means an entire body of aching for them.
The kind that lasts for days
and makes everyone around us
annoying by the complaints.
Being sharpened must not be nice.
Is it like shaving your head,
taking off your clothes, or does it hurt?
We get taller,
but they get shorter,
until nothing more than mere nubs,
and thrown away.
They sleep in our pencil cases,
rotting away in the dark corners
of the room
after they are lost by careless hands.
Nonetheless,
I'm grateful, Pencil,
that you're here with me.
