men who had killed
men who might have killed
men who saw the world a simpler way
than most men I had grown up around
men for whom buying a car required two lists
pros and cons
men for whom
a leaky faucet
required a plumber
men who spent all day in meetings
I learned how to dig
in ground so soft your boots sank in it
in ground so hard we broke it with a pick
before we could shovel anything
later I learned to repair high speed cameras
which had damned near torn themselves apart
when one gear broke
none of these skills had anything to do
with programming computers
although they may have left me attached
a little more firmly to the earth
than people who had had fancy office jobs
I had no way to test
and now that I write poems
devices spun from gossamer and air
sometimes trailing tails of gauze
I am so very glad for every pick's swing I made
for every camera I sent back into the field
and think they still connect me to what's real
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