I'Ve Got To Run Poem by Leonard Dabydeen

I've got to run

I said so many things before,

it will never be surprising if I pretend

to remember to forget. So can you.

This time is certain of a joint foreclosure.

Never mind I've got to run

a plane over the body of my leg.

I like the touch of a smooth body, too.

I scribed lines onto the legs with a marking gauge,

penciled them,

hold them in position in a vise.

Then as if my life is going to run

from the shackles of the work-bench,

I watched the mallet knock some sense

Into the head of the chisel,

deeper and deeper

forming a wood-grave.

A mortised mind so unforgiving

With a tenon arm moistened

With creamy carpenter's glue

closing the entrails

of an intimidating fit.

Is this the journey of man

and his environment?