#handwriting
Treasured in poverty,
grease-dark at the corners,
flour worked into the hinge,
its paint rubbed thin
by rough wet fingers
and decades of opening.
The index cards rise from it
like dry leaves,
each one carrying
a kitchen still breathing.
Butter has yellowed them.
Salt softened the ink.
A thumbprint holds its place
where something boiled over
but someone stopped it.
Recipes crossed a continent:
salmon loaf set firm in a pan,
cabbage rolls carried west from Ohio,
apple butter put up in jars.
Resist the temptation to toss it
as you clean out the cabinets
at what was your parents’ house.
There will come a day
when the cure for what hurts
is beef barley stew,
the steps surviving
in your grandmother’s perfect
slanting script.
Set it there
behind the flour,
behind the brown sugar,
where hands nearly reach
for what they cannot keep.
May 1
May 1, 2026 at 5:32 PM UTC
My handwriting is too much
too curved and too formy
My names in a bunch
poor cursive just swirly
Aug 16, 2025
Aug 16, 2025 at 1:15 AM UTC
I meant to confess
but the pencil cramped my hand
and I figured heartbreak
was already too messy
without my bad handwriting.
Jun 5, 2025
Jun 5, 2025 at 11:06 AM UTC
I miss what I never had.
Gentle reassurance and soft, loving encouragement.
Gentleness was not written in my mother’s movements
like a ballet dancer’s practiced pirouettes.
Her movements were more like my handwriting.
Jagged and coarse. Discordant and unrythmic.
I wonder though, were her movements intentional?
Were they truly meant to hurt and scare?
Or were they an absentminded reflection
of her own hurt and scars?
Mar 7, 2025
Mar 7, 2025 at 8:03 PM UTC
My handwriting is poor,
but the words I have to say
are rich with meaning and care.
Mar 7, 2025
Mar 7, 2025 at 6:42 PM UTC
My handwriting
is like a portmanteau of my parents'
I think it fits,
but sometimes
I wish it was different.
I guess that's just the way things are.
But I can change.
Jan 27, 2020
Jan 27, 2020 at 12:41 AM UTC
My handwriting looks
like a mix of
my Mum and Dad's.
I feel like it fits.
But sometimes
I wish it was different.
I guess that's how it is with a lot of things
Jan 27, 2020
Jan 27, 2020 at 12:01 AM UTC
the art of smooth handwriting eludes me &
i scribble silent letters
distracted by
boldly loud ones
onto the lines of a page,
emotions and confessions i will
turn in for class, my heart
out, &
where the teacher will
ultimately return it,
confusion marked
on the pages in red ink
and
my thoughts will be half understood
half appreciated and
half loved;
characterized by nothing more than luck,
who chose,
blindfolded
which thoughts deserved to be seen and
which ones would be
lost in translation,
from my head to the paper
existing clearly in my mind
yet appearing as hieroglyphics-
and i have yet to find my rosetta stone
Oct 10, 2019
Oct 10, 2019 at 11:52 AM UTC
I want someone to be so in love with me that even my handwriting makes their heart skip a beat.
Feb 1, 2019
Feb 1, 2019 at 10:08 PM UTC
my hand writing isn’t flowing
curving cursive
like a finger teasing down your spine
it’s rough
like the goosebumps
i wish i gave you
i want to decipher the brail on your arms
but i am not bold enough to touch you
Jan 28, 2019
Jan 28, 2019 at 5:40 PM UTC
Sometimes I forget
My own handwriting
And my "A"s come out wrong
Not looking at all like me
So I have to look back
At poems from yesterday
And forge my own signature
If I manage to remember
Where I set my pen down
Jul 22, 2018
Jul 22, 2018 at 12:43 AM UTC
A hand scribbles violently.
The pen carving through the lined paper.
Black Ink spilling out of the deep cuts,
Soaking into the pristine page.
Words blocking out the light,
By illuminating knowledge.
Strong, scared, and weary hands fight.
Jun 23, 2018
Jun 23, 2018 at 1:00 AM UTC
it's 1am here
and i can't fall asleep,
don't know of it's all the coffee
or threat of the upcoming week.
but i've talked to my sister, read my book--
i'm out of things to do.
so i guess i'll lie awake
and write some more about you.
we have pictures together on my wall,
places i'd like to go with you, my bucket list cries;
every pop of blue around the room
reminds me of your eyes.
every quote and poem and lyric,
they all sing the same tune
about a boy a girl writes about
every night by the light of the moon.
the letters you've written me
are tucked safely next to my bed,
and i still take them out to read them
even though they're memorized in my head.
maybe it's your handwriting
or the way you try with all your might
to tell me through each word
that it's gonna be alright.
so i'm kinda sorry that
everything reminds me of you,
i guess i'm just in love with
everything you do.
Apr 8, 2018
Apr 8, 2018 at 2:32 PM UTC
i wonder what your name
looks like in my handwriting
if i weren't as shy as i am
i would have overcrowded a notebook
just of the way your i's are dotted
what frightens me is that
your hands don't agonize over my name
don't at least motion the symbols in the air
much less write them
and i wonder what my name
looks like in your handwriting
if you curl the e the same i would curl yours
or if you bestow your personal touch upon it
either way it would look beautiful
i would adore any name you'd write for me
i wonder what your name
looks like in my handwriting
but honestly i worry that
i cannot do it justice
Nov 8, 2017
Nov 8, 2017 at 12:47 AM UTC
I
wrote
you
a
letter
and
I
never
sent
it.
You
wouldn't
have
been
able
to
read
it
anyway,
my
handwriting
is
just
as
bad
as
you
remember.
Maybe
worse.
Oct 14, 2016
Oct 14, 2016 at 4:26 PM UTC
if you find yourself
attracted to the simple
swirls of black ink against
white lined school paper in
a locker you know belongs to
her, you know that you have severe
problems.
Oct 4, 2016
Oct 4, 2016 at 2:15 PM UTC
"You could be a doctor!"
Yeah I could- Neurosurgery still allows
LOBOTOMIES
right?
(Tell me something I don't know)
"Why is it so slanted?"
Its trying to dodge your
OBVIOUS
conclusions.
(Show me better)
"How can you even read it?"
Maybe
just
maybe
because
ITS MINE??
(Someone get me away from this guy)
Jun 23, 2016
Jun 23, 2016 at 4:16 AM UTC
I want to learn
script, so maybe
I can feel as pretty
as my handwriting.
May 29, 2016
May 29, 2016 at 11:49 AM UTC
We all have different handwriting.
There are people, graphologists, who dedicate their entire lives, to understanding handwriting. A singular letter formed, can let them see into a persons mind. It can bring to light a persons inner thoughts, emotions, views on the world && themselves. Despite the fact that several charts are created, identically, of the proper formation of each letter, no two people write the same way. We all see the same chart, && create something else entirely.
If that alone, does not show you how individual we all are, how each of us distinctively perceive the exact same thing, than I don't know what will.
Stop trying to be like everyone else,
when you were born to be you,
because you,
are something special.
Mar 11, 2016
Mar 11, 2016 at 10:42 PM UTC
Lavender thoughts hung in her heart, airing
out her blood with the scent of daydreams.
She wanted to believe in love letters
but a blue fox warned her not to.
Handwriting is a dying art he said between cigar puffs. Even we know that.
She longed for the purr of an R, the double swerves of an S.
The snow brought her breath to life
as she stood by the frozen pond, staring up at the stars and she wondered
if she’d ever hold someone’s heart on paper.
Jun 5, 2015
Jun 5, 2015 at 10:50 AM UTC
As a student you hold a pen,
Just so very often.
Hold it carefully and take its care,
For it can get broken.
Threading all the letters beautifully,
Cursive you write so neat.
We complement each other,
That too so well.
You need polishing just a bit more,
I need a lot of it.
Earlier my handwriting used to be worse,
But now it has improved as you have come.
Come and write your name,
Not on paper but on my arm.
Come now and come closer to me,
This feels like a dream materialized.
Now that Both have chosen The Best,
I am just glad that we chose each other.
I look at your handwriting,
It means the world to me dear.
When your heart is so beautiful,
Your handwriting is also gorgeous.
Yeah you saw my handwriting,
It is not like your elegant one.
So I am content that our children'll have beautiful handwritings.
Your handwriting tells me that you're innocent,
It also showcases a beautiful heart which I love.
Capitalize on your boon of good handwriting,
Success beckons you and now you just need to study sincerely.
Sep 5, 2014
Sep 5, 2014 at 9:53 AM UTC
Cursive attempts;
simple words
misread
misinterpreted
mislead
every juncture
appendage
spins
dear readers
a web of confusion
blame not the spider
deceiving its prey.
Jul 4, 2014
Jul 4, 2014 at 12:13 AM UTC