MY KEYBOARD

No matter how I try, sometimes when I look up at the date 
to formulate my daily poem, I find at least one day 
and often two or three have skidded by unseen unheard, 
with nary a peep from this costly keyboard 
which turns out to be an unreliable alarm clock 
for those sorts of things. 

It doesn’t ring, it doesn’t beep, it sits in its place
on the desk, struggling to find its own space 
among the important pens, papers, and other computer 
deskly objects, mostly past due for attention and action. 
I suspect that they grumble among themselves about 
the crowded conditions and how the government 
should do something to help needy desk accoutrements. 
A ragged bunch of ingrates that all get free medical care 
and avoid getting thrown in the nearby trash basket 
until their useful life has run its course. 

All of which makes me wonder where I can find a keyboard 
that has a builtin calendar and alarm clock. Now look 
what I’ve done, the damn thing can read as well as write, 
has overheard me, and has stopped worki………

Below is what I call a Zoom Doodle, a sketch on plain white paper and colored pens to while away the sometimes vacuous Zoom meetings. It is built, one shape at a time, with no plan in mind until something other than someone shows up. So far, unsigned and untitled. 7”x10”.