Castiron Poems | Examples

Tools

The curious dormant nature of tools
becoming more than themselves in their quick
and singular way of performing:
Snowshoes making the body's weight a lie
over twenty foot drifts-web-footed
again I get to the river
where the fishing rod asleep in its limber
length jumps suddenly alive when the fish´s strike
leaps right into my hands.

Idle on the back porch the shovel´s
angle is to the point in its way
of getting under the surface. Through use
its handle is turning to harder wood
from layers of petrified sweat
and the bridle hangs stiff on a nail
saving the shape of the mare´s head,
remembering a mouth.

Red and silver rainbow trout freeze
on the snow as the sun goes down and the hot-
tempered ax head caught in the tightening grip
of the cold finally gets its crack
at a tree limb. Later the castiron woodstove
gathers to itself all the heat it can handle.
Smoke rises up to the cold night´s crisp stars,
impalpable almost as words
but which in their right use still have their way
of getting us through to the world
alive for a moment.