Liquid Nails

Dad could fix anything
with his shed full of tools
There was nothing he couldn’t repair.

Although he shook his head sadly at my
jeep when it went through the mower,
and refused to fix my little white chair
when I threw it off the deck for fun.

Dad still fixes things
most people throw away
it’s what his generation does.

But Mum when they got divorced
and she started again, all she had
was an old hammer, some nails
and a couple of screwdrivers. A lot
of things were held together with
sticky tape, and for big jobs liquid
nails. When things came unstuck
she just glued them again.

My brother and I laughed
when that tube of liquid nails
came out. We could see her in
30 years in her falling-down
house held together with the stuff.

I’m more of a duct tape girl
and use it on things made
badly in the first place.

Mum’s house is still standing
though we haven’t seen liquid nails
in years. It settled into its new rhythm
and has stopped falling down.

Tarla Kramer Lives in Quorn in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges. She has recently completed a Graduate Diploma in Arts (Creative Writing) at Tabor. More about her and her work can be found on the net on her Smashwords site.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.