Hammer and a Nail

Clearing webs from the hovel
a blistered hand on the handle of a shovel
I’ve been digging too deep, I always do.
I see my face on the surface
I look a lot like narcissus
A dark abyss of an emptiness
Standing on the edge of a drowning blue.

I look behind my ears for the green
Even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
Gotta get out of bed get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands, not just my head
I think myself into jail
Now I know a refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose.

I had a lot of good intentions
Sit around for fifty years and then collect a pension,
Started seeing the road to hell and just where it starts.
But my life is more than a vision
The sweetest part is acting after making a decision
I started seeing the whole as a sum of its parts.

I look behind my ears for the green
Even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
Gotta get out of bed get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands, not just my head
I think myself into jail
Now I know a refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose.

My life is part of the global life
I’d found myself becoming more immobile
When I’d think a little girl in the world can’t do anything.
A distant nation my community
A street person my responsibility
If I have a care in the world I have a gift to bring.

I look behind my ears for the green
Even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
Gotta get out of bed get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands, not just my head
I think myself into jail
Now I know a refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose.

Emily Ann Saliers

I was listening to my Indigo Girls play list when I read this week’s mlmm writing prompt – what a world!:

I would like to ask you to see the broader picture, I would like to ask you to tell me how would YOU change the world, by imagining a rule you set, a poem you read, a story you weave will be HEARD and acted upon.

By coincidence, the song bursting through my headphones was “Hammer and a Nail.” Written almost twenty years ago, the message isn’t stale.

When I was in my 20s I did a lot of protesting, marching, writing and signing petitions, speaking up and out. In the long years since, I haven’t been much of an activist in action. I might talk the talk, but I haven’t walked the walk. No more. I decided this month that it’s time I protested again. Marched again. Wrote and signed again. Spoke up and out again.

We all do have a gift to give. Let’s get those hammers and nails. Let’s use our hands and our hearts. Let’s grow refuges and roses. I believe we can.

Composed for mlmm writing prompt 27.11.16: what a world! (Image found HERE )