Ink

Spilled milk: pointless to shed tears over

Spilled beans: could be worth a drop or two

depending on what's been uncovered

Spilled guts: de rigueur to cry on cue

When blood is spilled, yes, weep and sigh

But what I spilled is ink, this morning

come from India, a cobalt blue

on the white shirt, the stain forming

before I could move, remove or do

anything. Ink, precious, useful, versatile

The Dead Sea Scrolls - ink made  from soot

Da Vinci's notebooks, the scores of Bach

ink of oak gall and iron. Roots, fruits

nuts and leaves and rust and earth

The octopus invented ink three

hundred thirty million years ago

to deceive and hide. The same reasons 

we use ink, to obscure, or camou- 

flage, dissimulate, disguise, suppress

This is why I don't eat octopus