You Have Me You Use Me Dainty Wilder Exclusive -
I am a pen, not ordinary but weighted: brass barrel engraved with a single name. You twist my cap, and ink breathes into the nib like a slow animal stirring. You use me to sign letters, to blot tears into grocery lists, to draft a confession line by deliberate line. Dainty hands coax a thin script; wilder hands press harder, turning loops into knots, sending words darker as if to anchor them. Exclusive: my few strokes are reserved for the signatures that matter — leases, postcards to lovers across oceans, the first sentence of a novel kept in a drawer for three years.
I am the thing you keep but will not tell: recipes scribbled in margins, a worn-out sweater, a route you take to avoid a person. You have me in the small private catalog of objects and choices that, when combined, make you legible. You use me as armor, as comfort, as a way to be alone while still belonging. Dainty is how you present yourself in polite company; wilder is how you behave alone. Exclusive is the combination of these that you share only with those who have learned the code. you have me you use me dainty wilder exclusive
X. You have me. You use me. Dainty, wilder, exclusive. I am a pen, not ordinary but weighted:
I. You hold me in the small quiet of a palm — a thing balanced between thumb and first knuckle, silver filigree catching a sliver of light. I am a pocket mirror with a lid that snaps and a hinge that sings like a tiny hinge when opened. You use me to fold a face into the neat geometry of introductions: jawline, mouth, lash line. Dainty, I fit into an evening bag beside mint tins and receipts. Wilder, I wake old scars with the flash of reflected light; I show not just what lies above the collar but the map of every sunburn, every freckle, the braid of a scar beneath the chin. Exclusive, I belong to you and the careful art of getting ready, a private ritual of arranging hair, appraising lipstick angles, practicing a smile that can be taken out into rooms and worn like a coat. Dainty hands coax a thin script; wilder hands
I am a photograph. You have me clipped to a fridge with a magnet shaped like a lemon. You use me to remember weather, a dog’s ear at the edge of sleep. Dainty photographs are Polaroids with soft edges; wilder photographs are grainy exposures taken from moving cars, tongues of light across windows. Exclusive photographs are proof given privately — a smile sent in a message at two a.m., an image of an empty train seat saved like a relic. You keep me to validate presence.
