Yes, neatly told, Bill. I was at first not sure if you needed all the description of the fete, but then the conclusion worked…
Doug
On Feb 18, 2015, at 8:11 AM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> One of your best, for me, Bill.
>
> Unfolds and concludes nicely nicely.
>
> ‘portable’ refers to what he carries? the toolbar?
>
> (I thought Jim was your neighbor but at the end he’s family.)
>
> Max
>
>
> On Feb 17, 2015, at 13:00, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> With four hammer blows
>> the three inch nail is flush.
>> That's counting the set-up tap.
>>
>> When the power goes off now
>> on a building site, carpenters
>> knock off for the day.
>>
>> In Jim's time, you just
>> got on with it. Power
>> was for the Sparkies.
>>
>> Stripped to the waist,
>> cracked leather tool bag
>> aproning his slight paunch,
>>
>> Jim put in steady days
>> on Bendigo housing blocks,
>> armed with his smooth,
>>
>> wooden-handled hammer,
>> nail punch, black-handled
>> builder's square rammed
>>
>> in his belt, flick-hinged
>> carpenter's rule and stubby,
>> flat, red pencil. A portable
>>
>> one-man constructor.
>> Even as I homeworked
>> over a desk as a teenager,
>>
>> on weekends, I knew
>> his presence, nails jangling
>> in that tool bag, interspersed
>>
>> with regular hammer blows,
>> some backyard project
>> always on the go.
>>
>> The fete on a Saturday
>> at the local grammar school,
>> saw well-heeled mothers,
>>
>> cardiganed fathers haggling
>> for bargains. Away from
>> trimmed doilies and napkins,
>>
>> a makeshift side-show
>> offered a pound note
>> to anyone who could drive
>>
>> a nail into thick board
>> in five or fewer blows.
>> I had to insist.
>>
>> Jim bought Choc Wedges
>> for the family, all five of us.
>> Proud, was I, as punch.
>>
>> bw
>> 17.2.15
>
Douglas Barbour
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Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuation 2 (UofAPress).
Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
that we are only
as we find out we are
Charles Olson
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