Initial Here

(initial here)
(fourteen pages, one pen)

Fourteen pages on a table longer than my first street
Pen on a little chain, even the pen got a leash
Yellow flag on the line, she say initial here
Seven years of rental keys in a drawer, still here
Lender say sign slow, I say that's how I was raised
Mama taught me cursive on a church program page
Every loop a promise, every tail a vow
I never learned to scribble so I'm printing it now
Closing agent checks her watch, I don't check mine
This the one clock I let run on my time
Page nine say forever in a font too small
I put my letters down like I'm writing on a wall
She slide the pen back, say you're a careful man
I say careful is a trade I learned off my mother's hands
Fifty cent in the offering, ten in the coat
She counted what she had and never counted what she owed

Initial here, initial here
Ink don't blink and the page don't lie
Initial here, initial here
Every little letter is a reason why
(initial here)

My father paid a landlord forty years of firsts
Rent book in his jacket, corners soft and worn
His name on a receipt but never on a deed
Now I hold the pen that he never got to hold
Lady say I'm welcome to a copy for my files
I say make it two, one for the frame, one to smile
Hang it where the school photos hang by the door
So the next one reads it and he don't ask for more
Not more than a name and a number on a gate
Not more than a key that fits and don't hate
Forty years of Mondays he was early to the till
Now the pen is mine and I take my time still
Six-dollar pen from the bank, I'm keeping it, true
One day it goes to my son with the paper too
Tell him this is how a name learns to stay
Slow ink, clear ink, nobody take it away

Initial here, initial here
Ink don't blink and the page don't lie
Initial here, initial here
Every little letter is a reason why
(initial here)

Sign it slow
(slow)
Read it twice
(twice)
Name on the door
(on the door)
Ink don't lie
(don't lie)

One more flag, one more line
One more promise with a date and a sign
She says last page, I say wait
Let me read it twice before I seal my fate
Never hurry, never hide, never skip a clause
They made us run for rooms, so I read the walls

Last page, no more initials
Full name, the whole thing, slow
Cheap blue pen she hand me, ink a little thin
The same kind that wrote my first library form
Sixteen, sweaty hands, borrowed address
Now the address is mine, no borrowing left
The ink still wet, I blow on it like a candle
Mama in the third row, handbag on her knee
She say don't cry on the paper, ink will bleed
I say let it bleed a little, it's a family seal
Dad, I got it, I got it, I got it

Initial here, initial here
Ink don't blink and the page is mine
Initial here, initial here
Every letter is a door and a sign
(initial here, initial here)
(Dad, I got it)

Initial here
(click)
Initial here
(click)
I initial here
(click)
Initial here
(click)
I initial here
(click)
Initial here
(click)
I initial here
(click)