Graph

It started in high school geometry

new year

new supplies

new notebook

He probably got it at the closest Venture

Probably didn’t even think when he threw it in the cart

But yet it survived

His graph paper spiral survived

2 years of high school

4 years of college

7 houses

3 dogs

2 daughters

He hung onto it because

Surely he might need a piece of graph paper some time

So 24 years later

when his oldest daughter

at 9 o’clock on a Monday night

desperately asked him if we had any graph paper

he opened his drawer and sifted through the trash

and held it up

he ripped out the notes from high school geometry

and for good measure ripped off the cover too

and now I sit here in class

Staring at the graph paper

that’s older than me

The paper is pink around the edges

from old age or a basement flood

I obsessively rip off the paper edges

the paper is stiff

and it hurts my nail

I draw little butterflies

onto the corners

I rip them off

and scatter them

around the room

I turn my paper in to the teacher

and she holds it in her hand

not knowing the story

or

the journey it took to get there