If You Find a Mug

Warm it in the microwave

for 30 seconds

then fill it with bold coffee.

Flip it upside down

and press the rim into dough

for perfectly shaped biscuits. 

Turn it over

and read the stamp of origin:

England, Japan, Sweden, China

USA.

Balance it on the roof of your car

while driving to work.

Display it like a trophy,

“Best Mom in the World”

“Teaching is my Superpower”

“New York Marathon”

Juggle it.

Sell it in a yard sale.

Crush it to make art.

Write your first name 

and last initial

on the bottom with a Sharpie.

Hang it from a hook.

Stack it on a shelf.

Load it in the dishwasher.

Pass it down to your 

college-age daughter.

Place it on your desk,

like a vase

and fill it with newly 

sharpened pencils.

Store just-in-case-you-need-it

or I-don’t-know-what-this-is

items for safekeeping.

Let it be the first thing 

you hold in the morning.

And the last item

to touch your lips 

at night.

Based on a Kwame Alexander poetry exercise, The Write Thing, p. 152.