Everyone has a red line.

A boundary drawn with deliberate hands on white paper.

Handed to us by those that sit closest to us.

But the line is ours to draw.

A scarlet signal.

A correction in response to the paper.

***

Not everyone puts the line in the same place.

Some people place it before anything can be written.

A hard priority.

Others put it after any and all writing.

Valuing what others put above the red pen.

A rare few will even cross through writing as a strange compromise of structure.

***

None of the places for the line are wrong.

Even several people that receive the same paper might mark it differently.

The only important thing is that the red line exists.

Paper forever carrying a record.

The pen must be respected,

And the person must know where it should go before the paper is received.

***

Owners of the paper might dislike the line.

An unwanted limit that clashes with their writing.

They may attempt to make it disappear with whiteout or camouflage it into oblivion.

That is when you know to rip the paper in half and move seats away.

To never accept another paper from them again.

For what use is your input without the red line?