Blood-Smutch'd Little Note-Books

Blood-Smutch'd Little Note-Books

is what
Whitman called them. War or
no war, they're the same today
as the
1860's. Whenever a writer
takes a pen nub, pushes it in
like a hypodermic,
tries to draw
life out, it's like that
clear serum oozes through
when there is no wound,
ends up as pages.