Nail Poem #2

been hammered on,
pounded on, honey.
my head may be achin',
but I'm the one
holdin' this house together.

Nail Poem #4

we lie in forgotten coffee cans,
bent and rusty, with cockeyed heads.
we wait to be hammered straight,
but we fear another pounding.

Nail Poem #18

don't sweat the nails,
the nails ain't gonna
let loose.
what you oughta be
double checkin'
is the planks
you're standin, on.

Nail Poem #64

She was once
a pretty little piece
of pine.
All she ever wanted
was a straight nail
to hold her tight.
But look at her now,
splintered
by a line of nails--
rusty,
bent out of shape.
All of them
had their way,
but none held her.

Nail Poem #39

he was quiet
kept his head on straight
til he started banging around
with that hammer.
now look at him!
bent-over,
rusty,
dull,
no point.

Nail Poem #20

You feel the hammer's claw
so tight on your neck
your head's about to come off.
You screech and squeal when yanked,
then clank, you've been coffee canned
with all the used bent nails that complain
that they can still hold it together, dammit;
plead that it wasn't their weakness,
not their fault the wood got rotten.

Larry Schug

If you've any comments on this poem, Larry Schug would be pleased to hear from you.

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