The Pleasure of the Right Tools
Roasting peppers on the grill, I inhale
the odors of freshly sawed lumber
and turned earth. My back and knees
recall the doing, as I rejoice in the memory
of the new maul pounding rebar through
the timber’s holes into the ground.
I place the blackened peppers into a
paper wine bag where they’ll steam.
The saw rests on its shelf next to the
drill. The beer tastes bitter. Perfect.
“The Pleasure of the Right Tools” first appeared in Winnow Magazine in July 2020. I am grateful to Rachael Crosbie, Tristan Cody and friends for taking this poem.
O at the Edges 
More here than just “right tools” – you capture the pleasures of engaging one set of tools while reflecting on experience of working with another set … Cool that the overlap distilled into poetry!
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Everything distills into poetry, though some of it isn’t fit for public consumption. 🙂 I’ve found that different types of activities complement each other. Yesterday I sandwiched cooking tasks around assembling a folding exercise bike. It was thoroughly enjoyable.
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At an estate sale this past weekend, I saw a Shopsmith that was a real bargain, and an outright steal at half-price on the second day. (I’ve paid less for a drill kit, and here was a lathe, saw, you name it.) I thought back to when I would have jumped on it in a second, when I had room for it and an inclination to devote the time it would need. These days – with far more time on my hands – I haven’t the space for it, nor the inclination. Right tool, wrong time. I thought about it over a beer, but did not go back to buy a tool that would have displaced my car from the garage.
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Though it’s been difficult at times, I’ve managed to avoid those types of bargains in the past few years. Well, I did purchase a book the other day that I didn’t need (already had a copy) simply because it was a bargain, and the bookman in me wouldn’t let it go. Ha!
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