For a Spiral Bound Note Book

putting pen to paper   then

      pulling pages from a pad

            isn't easy

when the perforation is more for show

            than utility

this page clung to its stub

      like an infant to its mother

            an archetypal image

                  of an immortal

                        poised on a stepping stone

                              a stream in spate

      while her infant child

            still at suck

                  slipped    slid    from her breast

                  &

            pipes played

            nymphs sang

            muses inspired

            a child was weaned

    so now these words separate

    themselves from their author

    go out into the world on their own

                                    © Dick Russell, 2013