Penmanship, by Dan Hardison

Appalachian Scenic Highway, Linen Era (1930-1945) postmarked 1941

Penmanship

For the young person
who stood staring blankly
at the old postcard
the message on the back
could have been written
in a foreign language.

Maybe a form of shorthand
or it could be encrypted,
perhaps an ancient glyph
whose cypher has been lost,
certainly a long-ago language
now impossible to comprehend.

But I remember school days
spent learning to write in cursive
practicing the joining of letters
to create a flowing script
patterned after the alphabet
in cursive hanging on the wall.

The postcard with its words
elegantly and painstakingly
written from edge to edge
whether ornamental or elegant,
conventional or personal in style,
is now in need of a translator.

​Dan Hardison
​
Dan Hardison is a writer and artist living in Wilmington, North Carolina. His writing has appeared at Calliope, The Wise Owl, Cattails, DailyHaiga, and other print and online journals. His illustrated self-published book Quietude is available from Lulu Press. His work can be found at his blog Some Tomorrow’s Morning, http://www.danhardison.blogspot.com and on Instagram @windscapestudio.