Smug about Signature

Some people admire my signature.

I too do.

The sweeping strokes

The V like the prow of a racing snake boat

The aerodynamic slant to the right –

It looks like a Roman galleon

About to ram into the midriff of an enemy ship.

I love to scribble my signature.

In bits of paper, in office vouchers

In letters to the editor and beg to submits.

Every signature reflects my mood –

Angry, tense, happy, sleepy, sad, content

Confident, shaky, casual, sharp -

The swirls and whorls, the strokes and strikes

Wax and wane in the tides of my mind.

Every signature screams - look at me, look at me

Vanity, trying to impress in vain.

Not much changed in the nearly forty years

Since its inception.

Neither have I, much.

Not much

In a signature.