<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper</span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At sixteen, I worked after high school hours<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">at a printing plant<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">that manufactured legal pads:<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Yellow paper<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">stacked seven feet high<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">and leaning<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">as I slipped cardboard<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">between the pages,<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">then brushed red glue<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">up and down the stack.<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">No gloves: fingertips required<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">for the perfection of paper,<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">smoothing the exact rectangle.<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sluggish by <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://0" dir="ltr" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="0" style="-webkit-text-decoration-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.258824);">9 PM</a>, the hands<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">would slide along suddenly sharp paper,<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">and gather slits thinner than the crevices<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">of the skin, hidden.<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Then the glue would sting,<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">hands oozing<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">till both palms burned<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">at the punchclock.<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ten years later, in law school,<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I knew that every legal pad<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">was glued with the sting of hidden cuts,<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">that every open lawbook<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">was a pair of hands<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">upturned and burning.<br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> - Martin Espada</span></div><div style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></div><br><div id="AppleMailSignature"><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>"Be joyful though you have considered all the facts."<div> - Wendell Berry</div></div></body></html>