Tully’s Tools

 

Tully’s Tools

We sit in Tully’s workshop
because after surgery he needs
scent of sawdust, smoke of solder,
surround of well-worn tools.

Tully has a rack of 57 screwdrivers.
Each, a story. We talk about tools stolen,
still pissed after all these years. We speak of
tools outdated like the Yankee driver, or tools
everlasting like this crowbar from Tully’s grandpa.

We speak of the dangerous — aren’t they all?
Here this bandsaw took Tim Russo’s toe,
tragic but you have to laugh at how it happened.
Right now on the table Tully is repairing
my old hammer-drill just for the fun of fixing.

From the scrap pile our kiddies
used to make sailboats and dolls.
With this glue we taught them
to fix toys broken. With these boards
to build, not buy. With our trucks
to change oil, to drive stick shift.
They may stare at screens but secretly
we embedded craft and competence
unto their genes, they’ll find out.

Mending is an art.
In the workshop slowly, surely,
Tully heals among his tools.

…..

First published in I-70 Review
photo is mine