the point

You can’t daydream
     and sharpen a pencil on
     a rough, damp, streamside boulder
at the same time.

It takes too much concentration
     not to shatter the brittle graphite cone
     with a careless stroke.
But it is worth the effort!
You get a much different point:
     roughly worked wood,
     smelling of fresh cut cedar,
topped by a scratch black pyramid of carbon...

This is a point more appropriate for writing about
a natural canyon with spirits whispering through willow trees,
     the culinary uses of wild plants and ground squirrels, or
     for sketching the observed mating stance of a dragonfly
           than,
           say,
     doing geometry homework.

Conveniently, this rustic point feels quite at home out here
      in the woods where pencil sharpeners are seldom found-
           and okay, I admit it...
           I forgot mine at home.