Scraps of Paper (Copyright Scott Hampton, 1995)

When writing upon objects
of opportunity, the constraints
of form are size - of surface,
of writing, of the knee on which
this rests. Perhaps there are
better uses for this paper which
protects the gas bill from the
postal service: I might
reincarnate it as a paper airplane
or a boat to float in the sink.
Perhaps not, unless
moving the fire from the burner
to my cigarette in the usual way
is a higher virtue. Who's to say?
I know that editing this will
require a precision I do not normally
have. Here, I must admit, is the
end of the poem. And envelope.