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