Mapping Rain in Chalk

Carpet Tacks (The Hardware Ballad)

A good Australian of large experience,

an exporter of blue shoe tacks, found

the mousetrap in the letterbox and

was flattened by an unknown grinning

dog sitting in front of our school

many years ago. Many years ago

we used small ballad arrangements

for Young Children and Hardware.

We also researched a variety of

sharp pins protruding through

a broad range of carpet tacks.

We sang:

"From carpet tacks to sealing wax—

Hammer tack! Bobbin puller! Rubber mallet!—

No village dressmaker has ever died—

Hammer tack! Bobbin puller! Rubber mallet!—

Of pins in the digestive organs."

You did the top. Razor sharp bits that

had been soldered to the bottom—nails,

screws and pieces of a broken barlow knife—

eliminated the need for using nails with

thicker shanks and wider heads placed

through the edges of skin wounds.

Hidden under the edges were other

discrete magnetizable items at

greater risk of notice and repair.

We sang:

"From carpet tacks to sealing wax—

Hammer tack! Bobbin puller! Rubber mallet!—

No village dressmaker has ever died—

Hammer tack! Bobbin puller! Rubber mallet!—

Of pins in the digestive organs."

I can only imagine a misguided restitution

when you attempt to find and demolish

the basement, attic and back steps of

the later Proust novels. Without the

carpet-tacks of incident to keep

the readers in place, attach them

to the floor with wire nails.

We sing:

"From carpet tacks to sealing wax—

Hammer tack! Bobbin puller! Rubber mallet!—

No village dressmaker has ever died—

Hammer tack! Bobbin puller! Rubber mallet!—

Of pins in the digestive organs."

Pull up the master and trim with scissors.

Promptly spread a box of vanity

beneath the under section of the batten.

The color is black. Avoid using glues,

varnishes or formaldehyde, even though

I brought them along. Let us not try

to build a single hammer.

Dispel the sloop.

copyright © lcmt

This poem is included in Chiral Phenomena, Intaglio Galosh Studio Press, 2011.