Standing Proud

There are times when you drive 

a square peg into a round hole,

as a trunnel fastens

post to beam, but today it’s round into round,

and when I’m done, the pine panel

will hold fast to the frame

for a lifetime or more.

I touch the protruding head 

with a calloused thumb,

finding it stands just a little proud.

With a scrap of sandpaper

I smooth it and touch again,

all the time thinking of Dad’s words

as we sawed and hammered 

at something long-forgotten:

“It’s the proud nail that gets driven down.”

Another lesson from that country poet

that even now shapes what goes upon this page:

words that as I trim and sand these lines

remind me that brilliant phrases are given us, 

that what I leave behind is more debt than gift.

© David Black, 2014

Mid-19th C. post & beam barn with pegged joints
Whidbey Island, Washington
Photo by Anne E. Kidd for the National Park Servise