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Ajax

If you think they're greedy now
wait until we're face to face,
when all that's left of our burning world
is a sampling of the race.
Do you suppose they will change
or go down ever scheming,
never admitting they were the cause
of mankind's cleaning.

Never did mind
doing the washing,
and I always pitch in
when something needs doing.
I slip on my work clothes
strap the tool belt on,
tie up my boots
there's work to be done.

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Comments

I like this poem..

I worked with oldsters whom taught me
small idiosyncratic skills

I climbed poles on spurs
and learned how to fell timbre
woodchip dig holes and parge cement

maybe its something I wont use again
ever.....

but If I am needed in the future like the
Great Book predicts of the end.. the failing
of systems... I know I can do these few
things that others would be timid to
throw their weight into!!

Tool Belt!! there is nothing satisfying
then the sound of a good typewriter
or a glowing screen with keyboard and connection

or the weight of a shockless framing hamner in its
holster..the weight of a good twenty five foot metal
spring retractable tape... a pencil behind one ear
a pouch for ordox nails. some screwdrivers maybe
a chalk line..

Im using my scraper to pick up the paint collected
on the tiles..using the Comet much like Ajax to scrub
clean the old grey wax and a green scratch pad
and will in time pick up a jug of hand wax and hand
polish the floor! Just like my mom taught us long ago
Skills I thought were outdated then!!!! but there is nothing
like the glow..the reflection..the clean pool of light
from a hand waxed floor....Next door is a welding shop
and they throw their skids down of all kinds for use for free
for wood!! I have hamners and nail pullers!!! I have a mountian
bike and there are trails that need wood like this!!
I use a small hand saw to cut back the small brush that grows along
the trails beneath a rail overpass when I walk my two dogs..

Im beginning to see that punctuation like a good filed drag tooth
is important.. like a good angled cut tooth and chain brake in
functioning order makes sense..that a sharp small hand saw
can limb trees and make a trail enjoyable and memorable then
risky and forgotten..

There is always work to be done for trail bosses
for Elders like us
restorers of the way
keepers of the routes!

Thanks Moonman

I know what you mean about the hammer, my favorite one
is my 20oz framing hammer, my tool belt fits me loosely so's
not to hinder in precarious positions. I would've never qualified
as a carpenter but could nail with the best of them and have
built several things on my own. I always loved working with
wood, but this poem isn't really about that.

If and when the bottom falls out there will be more need of
folks that can do the basic things, computers will be a thing
of the past, a luxury no longer useful. CEO's and President's
will be lost in the woods, as it should be. There will be hit list's
for the amply suited, and there will be lots of work to be done.

author comment

I know its not about tools per say Richard!!
One of my favourite shows on of late is
Undercover Boss where the top comes down
and is out on the line...Its television of course
My boss is smart and really is level with
all of us...Not a big chain
we make good money as a team
they push us and we push back of course
but they dont grind us

Not like the English did to the American colony
not like the French did to the populace in Sun God times

and then after the kings fall Like Greece
Like Egypt anew
the rebuilding afterwards..

no easy answers
nothing to do but find strengths
and people you can pack up with
that build
rather then the jackals and hyenas

so many bullies in todays world
and they look so clever
and find so many ways to hide themselves
and ingratiatie themselves wtih silver
tonques

blah lah

Must get back to my work here
housework now after the part time stuff

always nice to hear from you
and read your poems Richard

Most of the tools I use to use are in museums of farm equipment, where my Father use to milk the cows by hand and the bath at home hung on the kitchen door.
I still know how to use these things and do all those jobs we had when smaller and younger.
Who will teach those hands, that just press keys, and eyes that watch fleeting figures on screens, to use a sledge hammer a chain saw or just the Cross cut I use to help my Father with, who will let their eyes see straight lines when our tools and chalk lines are rotted away.
It is a time to use our eyes to cry....
Lovely piece of writing there Young man, Yours Young also, Ian.T
PS:- My eyes dance at the smile of a child, Yet wonder where their first steps will take them....

.
There are a million reasons to believe in yourself,
So find more reasons to believe in others..

questions I have as well. I've taught my youngest two, boy and girl,
the basics, differences between tools and how to use them so I feel
they both have a good start. Cross cut saws, I've actually used one
before and even then (much younger) it whooped both of us pretty
good.

P.S.- the first steps are a marvel and you have to wonder where
they will walk to, much like the first words, might they speak for us
all one day.

hope everything is lovely there Ian, tell the Mrs. I said hello,

Richard

author comment

an intriguing write ... who are 'they'?
i really like the turn around in the second stanza - lol it took me a while to figure that they were not two different poems...
(i'm a little thick i suppose.... but i eventually got it)

great and thought provoking

to speak of the mechanics - the change in pace and word usage between the two stanzas really worked to make me sit up and take notice,

and i love the title
love judy
xxx

'Each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,
shall draw the Thing as he sees It, for the God of Things as They are.'
(Rudyard Kipling)

They, hmmm, for me they are our politicians who
have sold our jobs for their own gains, they are the
owners of corporations that have squeezed out nearly
every small business in America ...

they could be a very big list but most assuredly they
are not the common man.

Thank you Judy and thanks for pointing out that little
change up in the speech pattern, I find it effective aloud.

author comment

Funny how those whose skills have the least to do with actual survival get paid the most ain't it? One of my favorite quotes (whose author I've forgotten) : All that is required for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing. Your poem reminds me of this..............stan

Not sure about that one but one very much like it
was written (supposedly) by Thomas Jefferson,
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of
good conscience to remain silent.

author comment

The guy you are looking for was an English parliamentarian of Irish descent, anyway the quote is attributed to him, and maybe a lot of others have said similar things, who knows ?????????????????
"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." -
-- Edmund Burke

Take care that I do nothing La La, Yours Sparrow

.
There are a million reasons to believe in yourself,
So find more reasons to believe in others..

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