Paid In Full

Lunches with fellow carpenters can be a comedy of injuries. We do love to list the stupidest things we've ever done.

                       Paid In Full

                 Written upon me
             in indelible white lines
                  are my lessons,
             each one memorable.

             Do not catch a chisel
                 nor toss a board
            with nails or splinters.
               Do not pull a razor
      hurriedly through wet wood.
        When your forearm burns
          from fatigue it must rest,
               lest it rest the saw
              where it should not.
                  Never use a lap
                   for a sawhorse
         nor a thigh for a benchtop.
       Beware the tablesaw, always.
              Ask your questions
          before the router starts
                and never while
                  the drill drills,
         unlikable is their answer.

                  If we do learn
              from our mistakes
               (and some of us
            have made them all),
   our learning must be immense.

         Thus reads the epitaph;
             “Here lies a genius,
        scars too numerous to list,
              lessons paid in full.”

             L’Isle-May Day-2023