Out of my backpack I pulled a ballpoint pen that I first thought that I'd never seen before. It told me where I'd got it though: it said "swiss" and had the white-cross flag on a red background shaped like a tailwing—the name and logo of Switzerland's airline. I'd gotten it at the check-in counter when I wrote my name and address on a luggage tag the last time I'd flown back from Boston to Zurich after visiting my mother in Massachusetts—and I'd forgotten it until I pulled it out today in class to write myself a note about something that, distracted by the pen, I have now forgotten. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 22 September 2025)