cedar · graphite hb · sharpened with a knife
a pencil so short that it can be held only with a thumb and one knuckle. green paint, half worn off, no name still legible. the lead has been brought to a point with a small knife, then again, then again, until what's left would fit in a thimble.
bought, originally, in a packet of twelve and apportioned to a shelf above the kettle. one was put in this pocket for the purpose of writing down a telephone number, then a list, then a name, then a number again. eleven cousins remain on the shelf, unused; this one has, alone, become a stub.
it is the most useful object in the pocket. it has signed for parcels, recorded the colour of a door, marked the place in a borrowed library book, and, in winter, drawn a small map on the back of a folded receipt for someone who was very lost. it expects nothing and offers a faint smell of cedar.
field-note · the eraser is worn flush. mistakes do not come out any more.
ticket stub · string · word · marginalia · memory