A Collector’s Life

Like many things that define a life

  it began in childhood.  A modest Christmas gift,

  a colored pencil, from his first-grade teacher.

  As he grew, he began to look for pencils  at antique 

  shops and flea markets. A discriminating searcher,

  he did not collect the ubiquitous, plain No. 2 pencil.

  He enjoyed the stories a distinctive pencil might suggest.

  Arriving at middle-age, he created a spreadsheet to

  describe each acquisition, where he bought it, what he paid.

  Never sated, his collection grows.

  He lives enriched by the thrill

  of the hunt that defines his life.