There are things we take for granted
People used to do without
With a thousand-plus examples,
But these verses are about…
Fasteners we use for clothing,
Such as zippers, hooks or snaps,
Also buttonholes and buttons,
Buckles, laces, even straps.
Have you heard of Whitcomb Judson?
He and Gideon Sundback share
The invention of the zipper -
Just let Google take you there.
All my jeans and many jackets
Have that satisfying zip,
Which my ancestors, when dressing,
Never had a chance to grip.
Every fastener has background
Which may fascinate or bore,
But we owe some thanks to those
Who get us quicker out the door.
*Thanks to my husband for the title!
Categories:
fasteners, clothes,
Form: Rhyme
Adhesives come in many forms –
There’s glue and tape and paste,
Including some that double-stick,
If you’ve no time to waste.
There also are some methods
Which will help things to adhere
In temporary fashion
So a page won’t disappear…
Such as paper clips and fasteners
And staples, tacks and pins,
Among the tools that many need
Before their work begins.
Still, unless you have an editor,
There is no easy trick
To remind a lazy writer
To his topic he should stick.
Categories:
fasteners, words,
Form: Rhyme
While you are busy praising me
And repeating sincere "I see!"
You keep staggering my story,
Less preparing for The Gory
A narrative oddly halting
Not better than the facts faulting...
Your job, now, A Good listener's
Just eyes on my lips Fasteners;
Glimpse I shall your struggling suspense
And it's s promise: my response;
Off and on make my hearer pause,
As though on my teller-lips gauze...
Always listen and listen good:
Don't interrupt my Robin Hood.
Categories:
fasteners, creation, devotion, imagination, words,
Form: Rhyme
Nails are common fasteners in the carpentry trade
And for DIY enthusiasts, as well.
When considering the varieties of nails,
It’s a counter-intuitive fact that cut nails,
With their angular shafts and blunt tips,
Work better than drawn wire nails,
Which have cylindrical shafts and pointed tips.
The geometry of cut nails allows them
To be more firmly gripped by the wood fibers,
Anchoring them more securely than wire nails.
And because they align with the grain of the wood
They are less likely to split lumber than wire nails,
Especially if you’re hammering
Into hardwood near the edge.
Cut nails can also come in handy
When driving home a point.
If you’re working construction,
Cut nails prove better.
But yours are clearly drawn and sharp as carpet tacks.
They disjoin and incite and direct insurrection.
You’ve split the wood and lost your grip.
You, sir, are no master carpenter.
You’re not even an amateur handyman.
You’ve built a house divided hawking tribalism
For your own self-serving ends.
You’re nothing but a cheap carnival huckster,
A cowardly bushwhacker, not some clever rebel hacker.
Your trolling’s just a slacker’s brand of vandalism.
Categories:
fasteners, allegory, political,
Form: Sonnet
Yesterday was Button Day;
I somehow let it slip
Or maybe I just chose instead
To button up my lip.
Begun in 1938,
This date was set aside
To celebrate the crafters
Who keep notions stores supplied.
For think about your buttons –
Not those round ones, white and plain
But the myriad varieties
That sewing sites contain.
There are endless shapes and colors
And materials as well,
Most with little holes for threading –
Look real close and you can tell.
Why, the perfect style of button
Can improve a garment’s looks
And as fasteners, they’re easier
Than zippers, snaps or hooks.
Just don’t push somebody’s buttons,
Even one who’s button cute
For on Button Day (or one day late)
We owe them a salute.
Categories:
fasteners, appreciation,
Form: Rhyme
I never learned to ride a horse
Or parasail or dive.
I never learned the trick involved
In keeping plants alive.
I never learned to knit or paint
Or tie a scarf or juggle
And calculating time zones
Always seems to be a struggle.
I never learned to hook a bra
With fasteners behind me.
For annual exams I need
Somebody to remind me.
I never learned to ski or ice skate;
Neither is a crime.
Yet somehow in my life at least
I learned the joy of rhyme.
Categories:
fasteners, me,
Form: Rhyme
Crooked canals seem to cancer my minds passages,
They flank my system and the first symptom is anger,
The situation goes from capable to cancelled packages.
Forgotten practices redeem the handled danger.
Turbulence in my undercarriages causes confusion in my passengers,
Nose die from 1400 feet, am i supposed to be this high?
Bodies as rag dolls grounded by seat fasteners.
Closed eyes see forgotten maydays with descending fates falling out the sky.
Mental executions refer families to the end of the waiting line,
A dead silence lays upon the room with shared fears,
Respiratory systems slow as minutes seem like days in time.
Fed violence sprouts couples of paired tears.
A simple conformation by signatures insure the act,
Marble walls to rubble as shovels hit debris from pedaled hate,
A respectable title and burial for the lost soul and a honorable plaque.
Tidal waves of numbness and weeping willows at the rest of fate.
Categories:
fasteners, death, cancer,
Form: Rhyme