If You Lose Your Pen

RUTH FORMAN if You Lose Your Pen and all you find is a broken pencil on the floor and the pencil has no sharpener and the sharpener is in the store and your pocket has no money and ifyou look again and all you find is a black Bic and the Bic you need is green and ifit appears beneath the mattress ofyour couch but the couch is dirty and you suddenlywant to clean beneath the pillows butyou have no vacuum and the vacuum is in the store and your pocket has no money it is notyour pen you are looking for it is your tongue and those who speakwith it your grandmothers and doves and ebony spiders hovering the corners ofyour throat it is your tongue and ifyou cannot find your tongue do not go looking for the cat you knowyou will not find her she is in the neighbor's kitchen eating Friskies she is in the neighbor's yard making love Reprinted from We are theYoung Magicians (Beacon Press 1993) by Ruth Forman [Meridians:/eminism, race, transnationalism 2003, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 25-6]©2003 by Wesleyan University Press. All rights reserved. 25 ifyou cannot find your tongue do not look for it for you are so busy looking it cannot find you the doves are getting dizzy and your grandmothers annoyed be still and let them find you they will come when they are ready and when they are itwill not matter ifyour pockets are empty ifyou write with a green Bic or a black Bic or the blood ofyour finger you will write you will write 26 RUTH FORMAN ...