COPYBOOK WRITING
No pal at school ever called it exciting
Crouched over a desk - doing Copybook writing.
With dip-pen in hand slowly following each letter
Teacher over your shoulder - willing it better.
The scratch of the nib across a notebook
Juvenile attempts at a tidy "by rote" look,
With occasional splatterings of wayward ink
To cause a kid to stop and blink -
And hastily blot out the spreading blip
Before the stain took a lasting grip.
Spoiling the look of what had been done,
Taking away what was carefully won.
But fast-forward the years and I'm childishly glad
That my handwriting now is never called bad
And I've never had any occasion to fall
Into the ballpen disgrace of illegible scrawl
But there's this downside of modern life I deplore:
No one writes to anyone else anymore.
Folk these days somehow think that it's cuter
To type their letters on a computer!
..................................................................
M.C. Newberry
Wed 1st Jul 2015 11:51
raypool - did you have one of those desks that had hardly
any space for your knees? I did!
Huw Thomas - I have been back to the last lines and think
it is more accurate for my purpose to amend the final line as shown. Ta!